February 9 is the date for the next Awareness Film Night. This month will feature the film Occupation Has No Future and speaker Kevin Neish, a Victoria man who was on board the Gaza aid boat that was ambushed by Israeli commandos last May resulting in nine civilian deaths.
In the fall of 2009, a group of U.S. veterans and war resisters travelled to Israel/Palestine to meet with their Israeli counterparts. Occupation Has No Future uses this trip as a lens to study Israeli militarism, examine the occupation and explore the work of Israelis and Palestinians who are organizing against militarism and occupation.
The film looks at the Israeli social environment that creates such a heightened militarism and leads to attitudes of fear/exclusion, racism and ultimately aggression.
Director David Zlutnick is a man in his 20’s who has created a film that has a great youthful energy, yet is serious and deep and non-conflictual in tone. There is not an extraneous moment in it. He states in an article on this film recently published in several different media: “I found Israel’s all-encompassing system of militarization hard to fathom… civilian institutions completely independent from the military are rare.”
Occupation Has No Future features the voices of the Israeli anti-militarist movement and the growing number of Israelis choosing to partner with an emergent grassroots Palestinian campaign of civil disobedience to defeat the occupation.
Honest about the extremely daunting challenges, this 2010 documentary also reveals the hopes of a growing number of Palestinians and Israelis to live together, free from occupation, with peace and justice.
After the screening, Kevin Neish will detail his experiences as one of only a few non-Turkish passengers on board the Turkish aid boat to Gaza, the Mavi Marmara, in May 2009. He witnessed first-hand the attack and boarding of that boat, while in international waters by Israeli commandos, and was subsequently taken prisoner along with all the other passengers and brought to an Israeli detention centre. Happily, he lived to tell the tale, and he will tell it at Awareness Film Night.
The screening is at 7 p.m. at the Edward Milne Community School theatre. Admission is by donation.
