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So It Goes: Actor from Controversial Miral Murdered

By Steven Lloyd Wilson | Posted Under Trade News | Comments (18)

hero_800_juliano_mer_khamis_ap_110404_470264.jpg

Miral is a little indie film that came out of Israel in the last six months to an explosion of controversy. Set over four generations of a Palestinian family and is based on a novel of the same name. The film focuses on the aftermath of the Deir Yassin Massacre when 55 surviving children of a massacred town were abandoned in Jerusalem. A Palestinian woman established an orphanage for them and their numbers swelled to over 2000 in a mere six months. The story of the film picks up with a newly orphaned girl dropped off. Coming of age stuff apparently ensues, to decidedly mixed reviews.

Of course, that’s not where the controversy comes from. The United Nations had a special screening of the film back in March over the protests of the American Jewish Committee, which declared that the film was one-sided and biased against Israel. I haven’t seen the film, and I really can’t comment on whether it is a nuanced look at historical scars or vicious anti-Israel propaganda. But I can say that I’d be surprised if a film featuring a massacre wasn’t one-sided, since that’s sort of the definition of a massacre. When there are a hundred dead civilians, there isn’t a counterpoint or alternate point of view.

But this would all be academic, just talking heads of one sort or another playing their scripted roles if not for the fact that the film about the fallout of bodies in the streets now has its first body in the street. Actor and filmmaker Juliano Mer-Khamis, who had only a small role in Miral, was a child of several worlds, born to a Jewish mother and an Arab Christian father. He served with the Israeli paratroopers and many years later founded a community theater in the infamous Jenin refugee camp. It was outside that theater where he was shot down by masked gunmen on Monday.

So it goes.

(source: THR)









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Comments

Hammas threatened hi many times.. I really don't understand why...

This is a good time to ask, am I the only Israeli on here...?

Posted by: Sarah J-town at April 6, 2011 10:10 AM

Sometimes art is political, sometimes art transcends politics. No artist should be killed for political reasons.

Posted by: cinekat at April 6, 2011 10:14 AM

Nobody should be killed for political reasons..

Posted by: Sarah J-town at April 6, 2011 10:27 AM

This is sad on so many levels.

Sarah J-town, you ask a good question. Often on this site I find out where people are from when something happens (lots of Kiwis identified themselves after the recent earthquake in Christchurch for instance). There's a strong smattering of Brits and Irish, several mainland Euros, and a growing Latin American contingent, And of course the Canadians love letting you know they're Canadian every chance they get! I don't know if I've ever seen someone identify as Israeli before.

Posted by: PaddyDog at April 6, 2011 10:40 AM

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/23/world/middleeast/23gaza.html

3 boys and a grandfather. Killed.

Now, we just ignore the war crimes.

Posted by: Anon at April 6, 2011 10:40 AM

Sara you are not alone, a few more of us here :)

very sad about Juliano. It needs to be said though, that he was killed by arab men ( the article here only says "hot down by masked gunmen") which makes it even sadder as he was a known pro palstinian activist.

Posted by: Schatsi at April 6, 2011 10:56 AM

the film was one-sided and biased against Israel

No offense but...so what? Not every film has to be a fair and equal examination of all sides of an issue or situation. Some films can be simple examinations of one person's or a group of people's specific experiences.

Posted by: Fredo at April 6, 2011 11:00 AM

major props for the Vonnegut
the ultimate sentiment for tragedy after the sheer weight of context that phrase was given

Posted by: PyD at April 6, 2011 11:03 AM

I don't believe that anyone has a monopoly on "good" or "evil".
The reality of human history is very messy/tragic/pathetic.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deir_Yassin_massacre

Posted by: OldSchool60 at April 6, 2011 11:29 AM

Here is a painful irony, his death will bring greater awareness of the movie to a wider audience. I might have never heard of it, but for this story on it. Now I shall make an effort to watch it, given the opportunity.

I had the opportunity to spend some time in Israel back in the very early 90s. Other than the SCUD missiles, it was incredible and wonderful, and it saddens me that it is too dangerous to justify a visit as a tourist.

Posted by: Feynmangroupie at April 6, 2011 11:47 AM

Another Israeli here! Ma schlomchem Sara v'Schatsi?

I agree, so what if it's one-sided and biased? Art usually is, as reflected by the bias of its creators.

When Munich came out, you had both Arabs and Jews complaining about bias for that too.

And this is just art. You should see the complaining about the bias in the media. Both sides.

It sounds like this guy was involved in trying to bring the two sides closer. It's a shame to lose people like this.

"Mer-Khamis is survived by his wife, who is pregnant with twins, a daughter and a son, who was reportedly also with him at the time of the shooting."

His poor family.

Posted by: Natalie at April 6, 2011 12:44 PM

Hey Anon, you must have missed this...The Fogel family: Udi, 36, his wife Ruth, 35, and their children Yoav, 11, Elad, 4 and Hadas, 3 months were all stabbed to death. Can you guess who murdered this family?
Dick.

Posted by: Common Sense at April 6, 2011 1:46 PM

Yo, Common Sense.

Why make things more complicated?

Moral judgement becomes a no-brainer if you decide the other side is evil.

Most people don't like morally questionable situations. Too much thinking is required. And there are no right answers.

Posted by: Natalie at April 6, 2011 2:59 PM

@Common Sense,

I don't mean to be rude, but can you guess who murdered the family? No one knows at this stage, although we're free to speculate. Aren't there rumours percolating that a Thai worker might have been responsible, because he would have had access to the compound? Something like that. By contrast, the news in the link Anon posted is fairly unambiguous.

Posted by: Frances at April 6, 2011 3:05 PM

@Frances

There are no shortage of Israeli civilians killed by Palestinians. We've all read about it in the news. His point was that innocents are killed on both sides.

Case in point, the Gaza offensive (in the link from Anon), which resulted in Palestinian civilian deaths. Of course, the offensive didn't occur in a vacuum, but when other efforts failed to end violence stemming from Gaza... that killed Israeli civilians. And of course, violence stemming from Gaza didn't occur in a vacuum either.

Guess what? It's a complicated situation.

The back and forth of who killed who in an effort to suss out who has the moral high ground goes on ad infinitum because there is no answer.

Posted by: Natalie at April 6, 2011 4:38 PM

@Natalie,

I get what you're saying. I was only making the point that at this stage of the investigation, (as far as I know), there's no real evidence that the Fogel murders were perpetrated by Palestinians, that's all.

Posted by: Frances at April 6, 2011 5:15 PM

Very sad. And a very appropriate Slaughterhouse Five reference

Posted by: THRILLHO at April 6, 2011 6:37 PM

-also here in Israel (Jerusalem)

Posted by: arib at April 11, 2011 3:12 AM