Saturday, October 26 NATIONAL MARCH on WASHINGTON DC to STOP the WAR ON IRAQ. For details, see <http://www.InternationalANSWER.org>. For info about transportation from Columbus to D.C., call the Community Organizing Center at 614-252-9255.
Sunday, October 27 War Without End? Not In Our Name! Demonstrate against Bush's Endless War! Time: 5-6 PM Location: 15th Ave. and High St., Columbus, OH Contact: 614-252-9255
Thursday, October 31, 7:30 - 9:30 PM Screening: Gaza Strip (Dir. James Longley, 2001) ***** Like most news reports and television images coming out of the Middle East these days, "Gaza Strip," an unsparing new documentary by James Longley, offers little reason for optimism. The film, which opens today at the Anthology Film Archives in the East Village, was shot in the winter and spring of 2001, and it provides a grim, upsetting glimpse at the lives of some of the 1.2 million Palestinians who live in the crowded cities and refugee camps of Gaza. Mr. Longley makes powerful use of the techniques of cinéma vérité. The absence of voice-over narration and talking-head interviews gives his portrait of daily life under duress a riveting immediacy. Much of "Gaza Strip" follows Mohammed Hejazi, a 13-year-old newspaper vendor. This youth, who left school after the second grade, spends much of his spare time with other boys throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers, even though his best friend was killed by the gunfire that is the inevitable response, and his father, who had spent time in an Israeli prison, once tied his son up to keep him at home. Mohammed presents a mixture of hardened cynicism and childish innocence that is both heartbreaking and unnerving. He is equally contemptuous of Ariel Sharon, whose election as prime minister takes place early in the film, of Mr. Sharon's predecessor Ehud Barak and of Yasir Arafat, and he fluctuates between weary sorrow and militaristic bravado. ("We want weapons. We don't want food.")...There are moments in "Gaza Strip" that disclose a wrenching human reality deeper and more basic than any politics. At one point Mohammed muses on death and the afterlife. His words cut against much of what we have heard lately about the Muslim view of martyrdom and paradise. He imagines receiving a stern interrogation from God - "Why did you throw those rocks?" "Why did you steal?" - after which he will be sent to heaven or hell, he doesn't know which. After some thought, he decides that he would be happiest in the solitude of purgatory. Such is the aspiration of a boy in Gaza. (A.O. Scott, New York Times 1/8/02) ***** Cf. <http://www.littleredbutton.com/gaza/> Location: 300 Journalism Building, Ohio State University, 242 West 18th Ave., Columbus, OH Campus Map: <http://www.osu.edu/map/linkbuildings/journalismbuilding.html> Sponsors: Student International Forum & Social Welfare Action Alliance Contact: Yoshie Furuhashi, 614-668-6554 or <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu> Download the flyer at <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/PalTruth-GazaStrip.doc>! -- Yoshie
* Calendar of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>