LaborFest: 4 Films on Civil Rights and the Palestinian Liberation Struggle

The following 4 films deserve a full house as both the issues of civil rights and the support of the Palestinian liberation struggle must be part of any serious labor movement.

"USA v. Al-Arian" is a film that tells the story of the targeting by the US government of Palestinian American professor Dr. Sami Al-Arian at the University of South Florida in Tampa. Sami who was also a member of the NEA United Professors of Florida received their support against the pressure to fire him after he appeared on Fox¹s Bill O¹Reilly show. The film shows a personal story of a family living in a society where scapegoating of Muslims for the 9/11 Inside Job has caused torture, false imprisonment, frame-ups, deportations and death of innocent human beings. For years, Nahla Al-Arian and her children have been fighting to prove the innocence of husband and father Sami, a Palestinian refugee, and civil rights activist, who has lived in the USA for more than thirty years. In 2003, Sami Al-Arian was accused of giving material support to a terrorist organization and held in solitary confinement for over three years. His six-month trial ended without a single guilty verdict. The failure to convict Dr. Al-Arian was seen as a stinging rebuke for the federal government. While the Bush administration considered this a landmark case in its campaign against international terrorism, Professor Sami Al-Arian claims he has been targeted in an attempt to silence his political views. Because the jury hung on some of the counts, however, Dr. Al-Arian remained in jail as the prosecution threatened to retry him. Laila Al-Arian, daughter of Sami Al-Arian will be attending.

"The Alley," a film From Occupied Palestine, explores aspects of the current political economy of Balata Refugee Camp in Nablus. Perspectives from this hard-hit community include the insights and voices of vegetable sellers and other residents of Balata, such as those forced by the harsh conditions of Israeli occupation to seek work in a sweatshop at the edge of the camp.

"The Suicide Jumpers" This work focuses on the Filipina house domestics who were seeking to leave Lebanon during the Israeli attack during 2006. Around 30,000 to 50,000 Filipino migrant workers ­ most of them female domestic helpers ­ were subjected to collective punishment in August 2006 in Israel because of the Lebanon bombing. Many of them were locked in their homes and had to jump out of their employers' homes to escape to the Philippines. It looks at the exploitation of these women and the hidden cost of the war against Lebanon paid for with US tax dollars.

"The Wisconsin Plan, From Welfare to Work" Israel’s welfare-work experiment “Wisconsin Plan” has entered its decisive phase, as the two-year pilot period is about to end in June 2007. This film shows how this plan is causing the social and economic problems on Palestinian people in Israel.