Oscar-nominated Palestinian director detained at LAX

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

Oscar-nominated Palestinian director detained at LAX

Palestinian director Emad Burnat ( L) stands next to his son Jibril as he speaks to the audience after a screening of his Oscar-nominated documentary "5 Broken Cameras" in the West Bank city of Ramallah January 28, 2013. (Photo: Reuters - Mohamad Torokman)

Palestinian director of Oscar-nominated “5 Broken Cameras” Emad Burnat was detained at Los Angeles airport and threatened with deportation Wednesday, the filmmaker told Al-Akhbar in an interview.

Burnat traveled to Los Angeles, from Palestine via Turkey, to attend Sunday's Academy Awards ceremony, where his film has been nominated for the “Best Documentary” category.

He was interrogated, detained for an hour and a half, and had his fingerprints taken twice. Airport officers googled his name to confirm that he had indeed been nominated for an Oscar.

LAX officials at first told Burnat they intended to deny him entry to the United States. “I told them I don't care if you send me back to Palestine, just don't detain me for any longer,” Burnat said.

His wife and eight-year-old son, who is the documentary's main character, were also held at the airport.

During his layover in Turkey's Istanbul, Burnat was also questioned by airport security officials.

Asked whether he thought he was sought out because of his film, Burnat said: “I don't know, but this is the first time this happens. I've been to the States six times in the last year.”

“5 Broken Cameras” documents non-violent resistance in Bil'in, a Palestinian village surrounded by Israeli settlements and Palestine's Apartheid Wall.

The US$400,000 documentary was made with contributions from Israeli and French government film funds. Its title refers to the number of cameras that Burnat, the filmmaker and main protagonist, had broken by Israeli forces as he tried to film weekly demonstrations against the military.

Documentary filmmaker Michael Moore was the first to break the news of Burnat's detainment, because the Palestinian director's detainment kept him away from a dinner party for nominees where Moore was present. Moore announced Burnat's ordeal on his Twitter account.

“Apparently the Immigration & Customs officers couldn't understand how a Palestinian could be an Oscar nominee. Emad texted me for help.” wrote Moore in his Twitter account this morning.

Burnat won the documentary director's award at the Sundance Film Festival this year.

[Reporting by Yumna Marwan]

http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/oscar-nominated-palestinian-director-detained-lax

[sandinista! 1,816]

Well yeah. When it's Palestinians, cameras are "weapons".

NPR blames the victim: Emad Burnat brought suffering to Bil’in by filming occupiers

by Philip Weiss on February 21, 2013 44

An appalling report on the great film "5 Broken Cameras," by Larry Abramson of NPR last night, suggested that filmmaker Emad Burnat had brought violence upon his tiny occupied village, Bil'in, by seeking to document the oppression.

Here (thanks to Susie Kneedler) is the end of his report:

ABRAMSON: [Hamza] Suleiman [20, a photographer in Bil'in] says that Israeli soldiers are more frightened of cameras than of the stones that are often thrown at them. But his camerawork has already cost Suleiman and his family a lot. He's been hit by gunfire and spent 11 months in prison. His mother, Fatima, says she wishes he'd put the camera away...

It's a complaint that Emad Burnat's wife also makes during "5 Broken Cameras" as she questions the price her family must pay for his project. In this lasting conflict, cameras are an important witness to suffering, but they also may be the cause of some of it.

A journalist questioning the rightness of journalism! When that journalism is a means of documenting oppression, no less.

I see the NPR's commenters are all over this. Thomas Antenucci writes eloquently:

“Sometimes it’s [the cameras] that cause suffering”…. What a

stunning example of blaming the victims.

Do we hear the Syrians blamed for photographing the brutality of the Assad regime? Only with Israel does NPR blame the victims

for daring to witness their oppression as the settlements steadily expand and grab more land.

The filmmaker is shot, beaten and imprisoned. His mother wails in fear. And his camera “caused” this suffering?

Abramson should find work at Fox News, not NPR.

The other disturbing thing about Abramson's report is that it presented the conflict as an even-handed one, in which settlers are also whipping out cameras to document Palestinian lies. And that in the actual broadcast (not included in the transcript), Abramson also said the following:

"Palestinians argue that the barrier has cut them off from agricultural land and effectively serves as a border slicing through territory the Palestinians believe should be part of a future state."

Do they argue that, or do they state it as fact? Why is NPR treating Palestinians as tendentious when it comes to basic human rights? One listener has written to say that Jews should not be assigned to cover this conflict. An inevitable, unfair response; but the reasonable question is, Is Abramson a Zionist? It's time for the media to discuss the influence of this Jewish-nationalist ideology born amid the nationalisms of 19th century Europe in contemporary Jewish and American life.

http://mondoweiss.net/2013/02/suffering-filming-occupiers.html

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Terrible and just wrong!

[ready4ONE 5,400]

It's a tragedy all right.

[Karee 4,189]

Nothing to see here. The Israeli govt. has the full support of the U.S. govt. in their ethnic cleansing campaign. Until that changes, these stories will go on and on and on.

Why doesn't Israel just annex these "occupied territories" and give everyone there the right to vote? Ohh... Wait... That could be a problem.

[ready4ONE 5,400]

My white, nine years old nephew was detained and singled out for enhanced screening a few years ago when traveling with his also white seventy plus years old grandfather, was that Israels fault too?

[decocker 7,198]

My white, nine years old nephew was detained and singled out for enhanced screening a few years ago when traveling with his also white seventy plus years old grandfather, was that Israels fault too?

of course. they have to pull some white people aside to keep up appearances!

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

It's a tragedy all right.

It was a picnic compared to what he's put through on a daily basis on his own land by Israeli occupation forces, but unusual for him to be treated by American airport security this way - as the article mentions, he's already been to the US six times this past year with no problems before. Security personnel simply did not believe his answer to their questions: that he was nominated for an Oscar and was in the US with his wife and son to attend the awards ceremony - even when he showed them the invitation. Apparently, security personnel do not know how to use Google.

[Karee 4,189]

Apparently, security personnel do not know how to use Google.

If they did, they would probably be in another line of work.

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

If they did, they would probably be in another line of work.

Haha maybe something a little more respected... like dogcatcher....

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

Now if you want to see something pretty funny, here the papparazzi has spotted the Palestinian director, Emad Burnat, leaving a pre-Oscar party with his wife, his 8-year-old son, plus another woman, another man who is driving - and Michael Moore - all crammed into a Kia

In the clip, you can hear one of the photographers apologizing to Burnat for the treatment at the airport.

[Karee 4,189]

Now if you want to see something pretty funny, here the papparazzi has spotted the Palestinian director, Emad Burnat, leaving a pre-Oscar party with his wife, his 8-year-old son, plus another woman, another man who is driving - and Michael Moore - all crammed into a Kia

In the clip, you can hear one of the photographers apologizing to Burnat for the treatment at the airport.

The fat commie isn't wearing his seatbelt.

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

The fat commie isn't wearing his seatbelt.

It probably isn't big enough.

[Darnell 8,478]

why the front passenger tire almost deflate?

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

And the Oscar goes to.....

"Searching for Sugar Man." Congrats to everyone on that film, and to all the documentaries nominated this year.

Here is Emad Burnat and family on the red carpet entering the Academy Awards tonight... check out Jibreel

His wife Soraya is wearing a traditional Palestinian hand-embroidered ("tatreez") dress in the classic Ramallah style.

Edited February 25, 2013 by wife_of_mahmoud