Saturday, April 07, 2012

New DAM video for Juliano Mer Khamis



On the first anniversary (April 4) of the unsolved murder of Juliano Mer Khamis, the Palestinian-Israeli rap band DAM put out this very moving video. (Helpfully, with English subtitles.)

Juliano was the son of Palestinian-Israeli Saliba Khamis (who I met in 1985) and Jewish-Israeli Arna Mer-Khamis. His parents were Communists, and such "mixed" marriages were quite common in the Israeli Communist party in the 1950s. Julian was a movie and theater actor, and director of a well-respected documentary, Arna's Children (watch it here) about his mother's work with a children's theater in Jenin, a city in the West Bank. He is best known for founding Freedom Theatre, a community theatre that provided opportunities for children of Jenin Refugee Camp. Juliano was shot by a masked gunman in front of the theater, and the killer is still at large.

Check out Mark Levine's tribute to Juliano and his work here.

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