A voice remembered

Prominent Palestinian actor and filmmaker Mohammad Bakri died on Dec. 24 in northern Israel, ending a 50-year career which was capped by the iconic film “Jenin Jenin.” This was a documentary about the Israeli army’s invasion of Jenin’s Palestinian refugee camp in April 2002 during Israel’s sweeping reoccupation of the West Bank following Palestinian acts of resistance to the occupation. The film is dedicated to the memory of executive producer Iyad Samudi who was shot and killed after the production of the film had concluded. 

A Palestinian citizen of Israel who remained a patriotic Palestinian, Bakri was born in the village of Bi’ina in northern Israel on Nov. 27, 1953, received his primary and secondary education nearby and studied acting and Arabic literature at Tel Aviv University. He began his career with the Hebrew Habima Theatre in Tel Aviv and Al-Kasaba theatre in Ramallah. He wrote and acted in one-man plays before performing in films in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Canada and Italy. 

“Jenin Jenin” was his towering achievement. The film was not a personal commentary but consisted of interviews with residents of the camp. During the fighting, Palestinian spokesmen, human rights organisations and foreign journalists who were denied access to the camp accused Israel of conducting a massacre. While some survivors claimed 500 people had been slain during Israel’s protracted operations in the camp, the UN later put the Palestinian death toll at 53-55; 23 Israeli troops were killed during the fighting.

The film was initially banned for general distribution by the Israeli Film Board, which claimed it told only one side of the story. Nevertheless, the film was screened at the Tel Aviv and Jerusalem cinematheques and Arab theatres. In 2004, the Israeli High Court finally ended the ban but joined the Film Board by labelling the film a “propagandistic lie.” In retaliation, Bakri condemned screening of a loyalist documentary “The Road to Jenin,” made by Pierre Rehov which describes the bombing of a Passover meal in the Israeli coastal town of Netanya where 30 Israeli civilians were killed and 140 injured. This prompted Israel to mount its operation, dubbed Defensive Shield, in the West Bank.

During the fighting in Jenin, Palestinian spokesmen, human rights organisations, and local and foreign journalists – who were banned from Jenin – accused Israel of conducting a civilian massacre. Journalists were finally allowed into the camp on April 18 and then with the grudging permission of the Israeli military which had bulldozed a blockade of earth on the road to the camp. This forced us along with Palestinians who had fled to walk several kilometres through fields and olive terraces to reach Jenin. The first person I met as I entered the camp was an elderly Palestinian woman who sitting on a mound of earth and probing it with a stick. When I asked her what she was doing, she said she was trying to find her grandson. “How old was he?” I asked. “Six.” 

The Israelis had gutted hundreds of homes and other buildings were flattened or damaged, rendering homeless 4,000 refugees, half of the camp’s residents. Journalists and visitors were ordered to leave the camp after an hour or 90 minutes and we and Palestinians who were also departing were fired upon as we made out way along the olive terraces. Jenin was a particularly sensitive issue for the Israeli army because the results of its operation in the camp attracted not only the attention of international media but also the UN, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. This is why Mohammed Bakri’s film became a key document in the history of Jenin.

In 2007, five soldiers who fought in Jenin sued the cinematheques in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem for showing the film during the ban, and sued Bakri for 2.5 million NIS ($783 million) for producing the film. In July 2008, Bakri was acquitted of the charges.

Bakri lived long enough to see that the story of “Jenin Jenin” was repeated this year. December 2024, the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA) launched a large-scale operation Jenin against the Jenin Brigades, a local Palestinian militia which mounted attacks on Israeli targets. The PA called it “Operation Protect the Homeland,” claimed the objective was to “eradicate sedition and chaos” and argued the militants were indirectly aiding Israel’s far right in the drive to weaken the PA.

Israel again attacked and emptied the Jenin, Tukaram, and Ain Shams camps of 40,000 Palestinians after resistance operations were launched against the never-ending occupation. Most of those expelled have not been permitted to return to their homes. The Israelis did not even allow then to enter early on in their expulsion to reclaim documents and precious possessions. Israel’s assault on Jenin and nearby towns has prompted Palestinians to remind the world that since 1948 they have faced the never ceasing Nakba (catastrophe) which aims to deprive them of their entire homeland.

Photo: AP