UPDATED from April 6:Despite the depressing lack of coverage by the faux patriotic media, this is a story worth telling for both the right and the left. Mer Khamis makes me proud to be a Jew and a Zionist. The right should be ashamed about NOT reporting on the murder of a man truly deb=voted to peace. The left, and all semites … Jews and Arabs, need to listen to Juliano Mer-Khami’s now silenced voice equating peace with the formation of one nation where Jews and Arabs can live together. I urge you to read this wonderful story about him the NY Times.
(Re-posted from Seattle filmmaker Jen Marlowe‘s personal e-mail. Mer-Khamis, son of a Jewish mother and Palestinian father, was a well-known actor and activist for Middle East peace, eschewing both right-wing Israeli dogma and the culture of intolerant Islam that has developed to counter it. He starred alongside Diane Keaton in the 1984 film The Little Drummer Boy.)
Actor Juliano Mer-Khamis - courtesy National Post (Canada)
Many of you may have already heard about the murder of Juliano Mer-Khamis. The co-founder and director of the Freedom Theatre in Jenin Refugee Camp, he was gunned down (five bullets to the head) this afternoon outside the theatre by an unknown assailant.
I first met Juliano in 2006, when I began working with a group of activists in New York to support the Freedom Theatre. I have visited the Freedom Theatre multiple times over the years, watching Juliano teach and direct young acting students. Most recently, I watched Juliano as he coached acting students three months ago, preparing for the much-acclaimed production of “Alice in Wonderland.”
I have no words at this moment to describe Juliano, the work of the Freedom Theatre, or the scope and scale of this horrific event, both for his family (Juliano leaves behind two children, one still a baby, and a pregnant wife), for the theatre, for the community in Jenin Refugee Camp, and for Palestine as a whole.
I can only offer this video, which I made in collaboration with my colleagues in ‘Friends of the Jenin Freedom Theatre’.
Please take a moment to watch Juliano, in his own words, as he talks about his vision for Palestine and how the Freedom Theatre is an integral part of that vision.
And please take a moment to share this video, to post it, to spread it.
Juliano was killed. But he has not been silenced.
With deep sadness,
Jen Marlowe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQGqmLyunm0
Another sad story!! Makes you feel so helpless.
I hope his wife is strong and has lots of help with their children. Thank goodness his mother didn’t have to see this.
Condolences with deepest sympathy.
What I can not understand is the LACK of attention to heroes like this.