New York Jewish Director Makes Pro-Palestinian Film

     Miral, a new film by acclaimed¹ director Julian Schnabel, is based on a book by Palestinian author Rula Jebreal. It chronicles the lives of four Palestinian women - from 1948 when the state of Israel was created to the 1990s. Through the four women, and especially Miral, the youngest, the film tells the story of the ongoing² Israeli - Palestinian conflict. Director Julian Schnabel, a Jewish American, looks at that conflict(冲突,矛盾) through Palestinian eyes and that has sparked controversy³ among Jews in America.

    "We have children from every corner of Palestine," said Hind⁴ al-Husseini. "And every day there’s more. My goal is to educate these kids. And give them hope."Hind al-Husseini is an upper class Palestinian. In 1948, she establishes a school in Jerusalem to shelter Palestinian girls whose parents have been killed in the conflict raging across the land. Hind is one of the four women showcased in this story.

    "Miral! How nice to see you," she said. "Don’t worry about her. She’ll be fine."Miral is the most prominent of the four. She grows up in the school in the eighties and early nineties during the first Palestinian uprising in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

    Hind: "You might have heard that there is an uprising, what has been called the Intifada."Miral: "It means stand up straight."Miral joins the revolt and is arrested by Israeli police.

    Police to Miral’s father: "Miral Shahin. Does she live here?"Her father: "She is my daughter. There must be some mistake."Police: "Call her please."Father: "She is asleep. It’s very late."Police: "Stay down. Stay down."Father: "I don’t understand."Miral: "I am Miral Shahin."Miral is taken away and tortured.

    The story is based on a semi-autobiographical novel by Rula Jebreal, who also wrote the screenplay. She says Miral is an accurate account of Israeli oppression of the Palestinians since 1948.

    "It’s not that it happened and it’s over," said Rula Jebreal. "It’s still happening till today. Miral is not me anymore because I left and I built a life. But it’s the many girls that are still there. They are still going through the same violence, the same oppression, the same racism⁵ and if I had a moment of hope, it was the peace agreement [in 1993.] That hope was killed, broken."Israel's government has not commented on the movie but it opposed the decision to hold the premiere at the United Nations General Assembly.

    So did the American Jewish Committee, a major pro-Israel group.

    Kenneth Bandler, Communications Director at the AJC, told VOA that the film is one-sided but that's not the major objection.

    "It’s one - sided which Julian Schnabel himself acknowledges it is a one-sided film," said Kenneth Bandler. "But again our objection was to its being screened at the General Assembly at the United Nations. We are not in the business of censoring⁶ films, and we’ve not spoken about it being shown in American theaters."Julian Schnabel, the artist and award winning movie director who made the film, said the criticism is not his concern.

    Sitting in a director’s chair at the Voice of America, in his signature pajamas⁷, he explained why.

    "I understood at the beginning of this process that it would engender⁸ this kind of reaction because there’s never been a movie made in the United States by certainly an American Jewish director about a Palestinian girl and her point of view," said Julian Schnabel.

    "Obviously there's a dialogue that needs to take place between the Jewish community in the United States and also in Israel because we need to solve this problem."Schnabel says although the film has sparked controversy(争论,论战) among Jewish Americans, Palestinians and Israelis share a common fear.

    "And that is, none of them are sure their kids are gonna come home from school at the end of the day, whether there is a terrorist that is going to blow some people up or whether it’s a straight bullet that’s gonna hit a kid from a scared soldier in the occupied territories," he said.

    The characters that inhabit the story point to a diverse and complex Palestinian society. There are pacifists, militants⁹, upright people and corrupt¹⁰ ones.

    "We'll accept 22 percent of the land," said a Palestinian. "It's more than what we have now. We can't go on waiting forever."The movie ends with the 1993 Oslo Accords that created a path to a Palestinian state.

    In the film, Hind al Husseini, the founder¹¹ of the school, tells Miral that she never thought she would see a Palestinian state.  She didn’t.

    Schnabel says the ongoing conflict makes his film all the more relevant.

    "We need to understand ‘the other.’ And that’s the reason I made the movie about ‘the other’ from ‘the other’s’ point of view," said Schnabel.

    Peering through his glasses, he talks about how people in Egypt and Tunisia stood up peacefully for change.  He hopes his film sparks a dialogue that helps bring peaceful co-existence between Palestinians and Israelis.（本文由在线英语听力室整理编辑）

1 acclaimed   

adj.受人欢迎的

参考例句：

• They acclaimed him as the best writer of the year. 他们称赞他为当年的最佳作者。
• Confuscius is acclaimed as a great thinker. 孔子被赞誉为伟大的思想家。

2 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

3 controversy   

n.争论，辩论，争吵

参考例句：

• That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
• We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。

4 hind   

adj.后面的，后部的

参考例句：

• The animal is able to stand up on its hind limbs.这种动物能够用后肢站立。
• Don't hind her in her studies.不要在学业上扯她后腿。

5 racism   

n.民族主义；种族歧视(意识)

参考例句：

• He said that racism is endemic in this country.他说种族主义在该国很普遍。
• Racism causes political instability and violence.种族主义道致政治动荡和暴力事件。

6 censoring   

删剪（书籍、电影等中被认为犯忌、违反道德或政治上危险的内容）( censor的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Therefore, exhibitors shall not make use of these materials before censoring. 展商在审查前不可使用这些资料。
• The company then said it would end self-censoring search results, putting it at odds with Beijing. 随后该公司表示，将停止自我审查搜索结果，从而与中国政府发生对抗。

7 pajamas   

n.睡衣裤

参考例句：

• At bedtime,I take off my clothes and put on my pajamas.睡觉时，我脱去衣服，换上睡衣。
• He was wearing striped pajamas.他穿着带条纹的睡衣裤。

8 engender   

v.产生，引起

参考例句：

• A policy like that tends to engender a sense of acceptance,and the research literature suggests this leads to greater innovation.一个能够使员工产生认同感的政策，研究表明这会走向更伟大的创新。
• The sense of injustice they engender is a threat to economic and political security.它们造成的不公平感是对经济和政治安全的威胁。

9 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

10 corrupt   

v.贿赂，收买；adj.腐败的，贪污的

参考例句：

• The newspaper alleged the mayor's corrupt practices.那家报纸断言市长有舞弊行为。
• This judge is corrupt.这个法官贪污。

11 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。