Handala

I saw Handala at the On the Boundary conference at Baylor. I was able to meet the film's producer Peder Wiegner and one of the main subjects of the doc, Lucia Pizarro. Handala takes an interesting look at the occupation and deserves a wide audience. The film also focuses on the growth of non violent resistance movements within Palestine and Israel in addition to foreign organizations that are active in the occupied territories. Handala relates that the ultimate security and peace to the region is a one state solution and not the "roadmap" to a two state myth that will never go anywhere.

Lucia Pizarro, a Mexican convert to Judaism from Catholocism, is one of the subjects to the film that I had the honor to meet. She explained to me the dark irony of her Israeli citizenship. She told me that as a Mexican, she has absolute no connection to Palestine whatsoever. However, her Israeli citizenship and identity as a Jew has given her more rights than a native Palestinian who cannot even live in the land which his or her father lived. Lucia's work with ICAHD (Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions) has gotten her forcefully removed from the site of a Palestinian house reconstruction but has never landed her in an Israeli jail like it has her Palestinian co-workers.

Handala is currently screening on a grass roots level to small cinemas, universities, and community centers. Screening information is available on the film's blog.