Juliano Died a Martyr, but his Work goes Marching on

 'My dream is that The Freedom Theatre will be a major force co-oporating with others in generating a cultural resistance carrying on its shoulders universal values of freedom and justice'           
JULIANO MER KHAMIS

THREE years ago today, on the afternoon of April 4, 2011, Juliano Mer Khamis stepped out of the Freedom Theatre in Jenin refugee camp, occupied Palestine, where he worked. He got into his old red Citroen car, with his baby son Jay, to go home.

As he set off, a man in a balaclava came out of an alleyway and told him to stop. The man then shot Juliano five times, before escaping back down the alley, throwing away his mask. Juliano, the theatre director, was killed, though Jay survived. The killer has never been caught. Nor is it known for sure who was behind this murder and what the precise motives were, though Juliano's friends and colleagues have their suspicions, and they are not the only ones.

Juliano Mer Khamis was 52 when he died, the same age as union leader Bob Crow, and like Bob at the height of his career when taken from us. Though the two men came from different countries and backgrounds, both were loved and are sadly missed; and both were hated by reaction, because though they worked in different ways, both were men of the Left.

Juliano Mer Khamis was an Israeli citizen, and his mother was Arna Mer Khamis, who came from a Zionist family and served in the left-Zionist fighting force the Palmach (as did Ariel Sharon). In the 1948 war she drove a jeep. It was only after the war, when the forces of the new State were used to clear Bedouin in the south, that the young woman began to ask herself what she supported, and look for other ideas.  This led her to the Communist Party, and it was at a party conferene that she met Saliba Khamis, who came from a Greek Orthodox family. He was active in the party in Nazareth, where it came to lead the city council, and he wrote article for the party paper al-Ittihad. 

Arna had been a teacher, but was sacked for marrying an Arab. Welcomed by her new family, she was less well regarded by her Jewish relations, and badly treated in hospital when Juliano was born in 1958. After her death from cancer in 1995 it was almost impossible to find a cemetery where she could be buried.

Although Saliba Khamis was a communist in politics he was not so progressive or liberal as a Dad. Juliano later said he first learned about politics ‘at the end of my father’s belt’. As a youth he tried to identify as an Israeli, serving in the army with his peers and joining the paratroops. For a time he tried dropping the Khamis from his surname.  But he could not close his eyes to the crimes and casual brutality of  the Israeli military, and his breaking point came when he was ordered to beat an elderly Palestinian man at an army checkpoint. Juliano refused, and punched his officer in the face instead. He was thrown in the slammer for refusing orders, and then dismissed from the forces.

Juliano's subsequent career had its ups and downs, from acting on stage and in films to bumming around at home and abroad, drinking, experimenting with drugs, and sleeping on a beach. He was brought to a more stable life when he met Mishmish Or, an Israeli costume designer, from misrahi (Eastern Jewish) background, moved in and became stepfather to her 2-year old daughter Keshet. Then he was persuaded to follow in his mother's footsteps, working in Jenin.

Arna was working with Palestinian mothers, trying to maintain education after the Israelis had closed schools. She took toys and banned literature to people's homes. She taught art, and invited Juliano to teach drama. In 1993, they started the children's theatre, on the top floor of Samira Zubeidi’s house. Juliano was there constantly, directing rehearsals, and filming his mother and the children for what became Arna’s Children. Samira Zubeidi was shot by an Israeli sniper. The theatre on their house was demolished. But by then Juliano Mer Khamis had become a fiend of Zakharia Zubeidi, her son, who went on to become commander of the Al Aqsa brigade of Palestinian fighters.

In 2004, Juliano brought out the film Arna's Children, which showed how the children of the camps, growing up under occupation, became fighters and martyrs. People in Jenin celebrated, and among them Zakharia Zubeidi. But afterwards, he and Juliano Mer Khamis discussed the fate of the second Intifada, and how Palestinian society and culture could resist and rebuild, rather than depend on its armed heroes.  They decided to restart the theatre.

Not everyone liked what they did. Some distrusted co-operation with any Israeli, even one like Juliano who declared himself "100 per cent Jewish and 100 per cent Palestinian" and had been on the run with their own. They resented any distraction from "armed struggle", though Juliano never condemned the fighters, and Zubeidi could hardly be accused of cowardice. Then there were those in the Palestinian Authority who didn't like anything critical of their own collaboration or corruption,and may well have taken umbrage at what young Palestinians were making of Orwell's Animal Farm.  Last but not least, there are conservative religious elements, those who object to any modern culture in their society, and are scandalised by talk of teenage boys and girls acting together on stage, and tales of immodest dress, drink and drugs - not pausing to ask where these tales originate, and whether the occupiers might be stirring the pot.

All the same there is a gap between dislike and deciding to kill somebody, and it is not often that Palestinians attack someone who comes in solidarity. Juliano was careful not to cause unecesessary offence to religious people. But as with Vittorio Arrigoni, the Italian solidarity activist murdered in Gaza, suspectedly by a salafi group, there are religious fanatics, possibly not even Palestinian, for whom the concept of solidarity against the Israeli occupation is meaningless, compared to their desire to impose their own reign of terror under the banner of religious "purity".

Whatever the circumstances of Juliano Mer Khamis' martyrdom and the motives of the murderer, or whoever sent him, it has not stopped Juliano's work. Besides its many fans and supporters in Palestine, the Freedom Theatre has won friends and admirers overseas, and a UK Friends group is preparing fundraisers and a tour in Britain.



http://www.thefreedomtheatre.org/

http://www.thefreedomtheatreukfriends.com/

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v35/n22/adam-shatz/the-life-and-death-of-juliano-mer-khamis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vittorio_Arrigoni

ARNA IN LONDON   at a vigil on the steps of St.Martin le Fields, near Trafalgar Square, remembering Palestinian children killed during the first Intifada. The woman in white with the red flower is Arna Mer Khamis.

Suffer Little Children...Will Bishop bar the Brownies?!

IT used to be unkindly alleged by some that the Church of England would rather abandon all 39 of its articles than surrender an acre of its property. There were even quite salacious allegations about the nature of the businesses carried on in some properties owned by the Church.

The Church Commissioners did get rid of a lot of west London real estate in the 1950s, some of it taken over by the London County Council for redevelopment and council housing, and some alas falling into the hands of such philanthropic gents as Peter Rachman. The Church and its capital were  thus freed for investment in new developments.


Nowadays the Church Commissioners oversee some £5.2 billion investments including industry and finance as well as £1.71 billion in property. There is also the Church of England Pension Fund. Attempts by the Church's synod or senior churchmen to dissociate from embarrassing business links (Wonga) or divest on ethical grounds (Caterpillar) can run into resistance from the more commercially-minded Commissioners, who number 33 including the Prime Minister and other members of government.

But then there's the more modest property attached to the parish church, the church hall which can be host to all sort of community activities. Only some churchmen are threatening to ban one particular organisation - the Girl Guides!

Before you go wondering in your imagination what sort of dreadful sin the Guides have been committing (shades of St.Trinian's, their patron?) it is their elders who are to blame. They have decided that in Britain in the 21st century the Guides need no longer include God in their oath of allegiance.  The Queen is still there, unfortunately, though Guides can now promise to Do Their Best for the community, rather than country.  The new promise comes into force on September 1.

Except in Harrogate, apparently, where some Guide leaders say they will stick to the godly version. Rev Brian Hunt, minister of the church where Harrogate Guides have met for many years, supports their stance, indicating that the unit could not possibly expect to use the facilities otherwise.

“My church allows the Guides to use my premises for free,” he said. “And we do that because they’ve always tried to look after the whole person – body, mind and soul – and we encourage that. I don’t think, in fairness, that Girl Guides can expect churches to provide premises for free when they don’t believe in God.”

Hundreds of Guide groups around the country have been using church premises free or for a small fee for many years. In return, vicars faced with dwindling congregations have relied on groups like the Guides to take part in church activities and processions.

A Girl Guiding spokeswoman insisted that the decision to change the oath was based on research that found it should “unify all girls of all backgrounds and all circumstances”. he said: “Updating the Promise does not alter our continuing commitment to offer all girls a safe space where they can explore and develop their beliefs".
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/10262653/Girl-Guides-should-not-be-allowed-to-use-church-premises.html

That space may no longer be found in the church hall.

Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, the former Bishop of Rochester, said that he hoped “many others” would follow the stance taken by the women in Harrogate, North Yorks.

Christian Concern, which is concerned about abortions, Islam and gay rights, and defends Christians supposedly prevented from raising their faith at work, goes further, accusing the Guide movement of a “slap in the face” to the churches.“It’s understandable that some church leaders won’t be happy providing premises if the Guides are so insistent on keeping God out of the movement,” a spokesman said.

The Evangelical Alliance agreed, suggesting that the decision to remove the reference to God could backfire."Many churches must now be reconsidering whether they want to give their resources, free time and free use of their buildings to an organisation that wants to cleanse itself of God, especially when there is an alternative in the Girls Brigade that is rooted in the Christian faith,"

The Guides' and Brownies' promise to “love my God” is to be replaced with a more individualistic pledge to “be true to myself” and to “develop my beliefs”.

The patriotic pledge to serve "my country" is replaced by one to serve the community.

But in a consultation which attracted almost 44,000 responses Guides made clear that they wanted to retain a public expression of allegiance to the Queen, who is also their patron.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/10128251/Guides-drop-God-and-country-but-keep-the-Queen.html

The group’s new chief executive, Julie Bentley, is the former head of The Family Planning Association, and describes the Guides as “the ultimate feminist organisation”.
Gill Slocombe, the Chief Guide, said the changes would make the promise less “confusing” and easier for the organisation’s 550,000 members to take with sincerity.

But while Guide leaders stress the need for sincerity, and some people would remind less tolerant churchmen of the duty of charity, their opponents plainly believe the greatest of their assets is church property.

Reverend Paul Williamson, of St.George's Church in Feltham, Middlesex, says it would be “hypocritical” of the Guides movement to think it could continue as before after abandoning its core beliefs.“If the Guide promise does not mention God, I cannot see why they should be on Church premises.”
.

 Rev Williamson, a former Scout leader, warned that most Guide groups did not have the funds or the ability to run their own buildings and that local schools or councils would charge far more for the hire of their facilities.“It seems to me the Girl Guides are being doctrinaire, feminist and anti-church,” he said. “How can they expect, as a reputable charity organisation, to go on using church premises whilst telling young girls that that cannot promise their duty to God?”

Fortunately for the Church, clerics like Rev.Williamson seem to be less strict about excluding funding for their premises. Here's a local report:

"A HANWORTH church congregation celebrated the completion of a new £250,000 roof on Sunday.
A special service of celebration was held at St George's Church in Elmwood Avenue to mark the end of repair works.

The service was officiated by the right reverend Robert Mercer, and was followed by a champagne reception. The new roof has been funded through grants from a host of organisations, driven by The Hanworth Park Preservation Trust.

The scheme involved the replacement of the roof on the historic building's chapel and chancel, the area which houses the altar and choir stalls. New guttering and rainwater systems were installed, and the chancel walls were re pointed to stop water creeping in. Areas of internal plasterwork damaged by water were also repaired, as well as distinctive and rare marble panels.

Funding was provided by English Heritage, The Garfield West Foundation, The National Churches Trust and The Veolia Enivronmental Trust.

Speaking about the end of the project, church vicar, the Reverend Paul Williamson, said: "It's wonderful to see the church watertight after two decades. When I first arrived over 20 years ago, the floor was dotted with large black buckets. This work returns the church to the community for all to enjoy."

Speaking about the end of the project, church vicar, the Reverend Paul Williamson, said: "It's wonderful to see the church watertight after two decades. When I first arrived over 20 years ago, the floor was dotted with large black buckets. This work returns the church to the community for all to enjoy."

Executive Director of The Veolia Environmental Trust, Margaret Cobbold, said: "It is great to hear that this project is complete and all the hard work that has gone into it is going to be celebrated.
"It was important to the trust that we helped protect and preserve this important building and I hope the repairs mean St George's remains at the heart of Hanworth for years to come."

http://feltham.hounslowchronicle.co.uk/2010/11/250000-works-celebrated-by-han.html

Veolia is the French company that has acquired so much utility and public service provision, despite strong criticism of its involvement  in illegal settlements and discriminatory practices such that some consider it an obstacle to peace in what Church of England vicars often call "The Holy Land".

But I doubt whether it or the other donors were required to promise to "serve God", any more than you or I would be, before being allowed to make a donation to church funds and charities.

Still we must be grateful, I suppose, to the C of E and other religious denominations for letting us make use of their premises, regardless of belief, when thanks to their resources these are often the only places available. 

 Church of England investments:
 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23467750

The Church Commissioners

Church and Caterpillar
Ethical Investments

Work without Wages, Sleep under Bridges.

MOLLY PRINCE receives award for providing "training".

ANOTHER PRINCE has made the news, and this one has given us a glimpse in this Jubilee Weekend of the glorious future in Cameron's Big Society, betokened by the way Britain is treating its young people.

This is Molly Prince, the director of the company that arranged for young unemployed people to be bused to London from Bristol, Bath, Plymouth and other cities, to serve as stewards for the Jubilee pageant. These young people were employed by a private security firm called Close Protection UK. But the company did not have to pay them proper wages. Nor apparently was anyone responsible for seeing they had somewhere to sleep.

The stewards were supposedly training, under the government's work programme. Of the 80 whom Close Protection engaged, 50 people under the age of 25 were paid the government's standard rate for apprentices of £2.60 per hour and the other 30 either accepted the same rate or refused payment because it would adversely affect their benefits.

Close Protection also has a contract for the Olympics, and promised that those who did well this weekend might be selected for Olympics work. Work experience is a compulsory part of the NVQ2 qualification in stewarding required for work at major events such as the Olympics.

The government and police are reportedly keen to clear rough sleepers, among others, off the streets of London before the Olympics. Now ministers are being urged to look into reports that stewards for the Diamond Jubilee ended up having to sleep outside. Volunteers from the government's work programme scheme had to spend the night under London Bridge before Sunday's Thames pageant, the Guardian said. Labour's Lord Prescott has written to the home secretary, saying the contractor owed staff a "duty of care".

Close Protection UK has apologised and blamed a "misunderstanding". The company said staff arriving from outside London on Sunday morning - ahead of the pageant on the Thames - should not have been dropped in the capital at 0300 BST with nowhere to stay.

The company, one of those awarded a stewarding contract for the Diamond Jubilee events, said there was confusion on the part of the coach driver who was two hours ahead of schedule.

The Guardian reported that volunteers bussed in from Bristol, Plymouth and Bath had to spend part of the night under London Bridge, one telling the newspaper that conditions were "freezing" and another saying it was impossible to pitch a tent due to the concrete surface.. They also told the newspaper that they had to change into their clothing - which included a plastic poncho for protection against the rain and high-visibility jacket - in public and had no access to toilets during the 14-hour shift.

Labour's Lord Prescott has urged Home Secretary Theresa May to begin an urgent inquiry into what happened."If the allegations are true, it is totally unacceptable that young unemployed people were bussed in to London from Bristol, Bath and Plymouth and forced to sleep out in the cold overnight before stewarding a major event with no payment," he wrote.

"I am deeply concerned that a private security firm is not only providing policing on the cheap but failing to show a duty of care to its staff and threatening to withdraw an opportunity to work at the Olympics as a means to coerce them to work unpaid."

The Wigan-based charity Tomorrow's People, which set up some of the placements at Close Protection UK under the work programme, said it did not approve of unpaid work but in this case believed that it was valid work experience. However, it is seeking further clarification from the stewarding company.

The Department for Work and Pensions said the work programme used organisations such as charities to help get the long-term unemployed back into work and while on such schemes individuals continued to receive their Jobseeker's Allowance.

The Third Estate blog which named Molly Prince says her Twitter account has been hastily taken down since it suggested people get in touch with her. But her company, Leadership Development Centre is based at Salford University.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18329526

http://thethirdestate.net/2012/06/molly-prince-the-boss-whose-company-told-unpaid-jubilee-stewards-to-sleep-under-london-bridge/

http://www.ldc-uk.com/Sectors/Apprenticeships.aspx

High Street Robbery

SOME stories illustrate what the government is doing to young people. First there's Cait Reilly. This 22-year old studied geology at university, but found she could not get a job in her field. So while she had to sign on and claim unemployment benefit, Cait volunteered to help in a museum.

It seemed like a sound move. It might not bring any more money. but besides giving her some interesting activity it would be relevent experience to put in her CV when applying for a suitable job.

But the authorities had other ideas. At the suggestion of her Jobcentre Plus adviser Cait attended a retail jobs ‘open day’, which she was told would lead to a period of training and a job interview.

Miss Reilly and other candidates were sent to an employment skills training workshop for a week, aimed at improving attributes such as communication skills, followed by the five-hour-a-day stint at Poundland near Miss Reilly’s home in King’s Heath, Birmingham, in November.

She and five other claimants spent their time on the placement sweeping up and stacking and cleaning shelves, before they had to attend a final week of training under the ‘sector-based work academy’ scheme (SBWA). The promised job interview never materialised.

As she said: ‘I was actually doing something that was helping me work towards a job and was taken away from that to do something of no value to me. It was very frustrating.’

Under the scheme that is supposed to "encourage" the unemployed off benefits, claimants are being required to take part in an Employment, Skills and Enterprise Scheme in order to receive their Jobseekers Allowance (or dole as we old timers used to call it). The Department of Work and Pensions says that candidates who ‘express an interest’ in doing unpaid placements will lose their JSA if they pull out after the first ‘cooling off’ week on the scheme. But Cait Reilly says she was not informed about any cooling off period.

She said she felt she had to do it because ‘without my Jobseeker’s Allowance, I would literally have nothing’. She believes the placement allowed Poundland to use her as ‘free labour’ in the run-up to Christmas. She has now returned to her voluntary role at the city’s Pen Room Museum of writing and pen trade memorabilia, still looking for paid employment.

Cait is now pursuing legal action against the government. Her solicitor, Jim Duffy, said the practice contravenes article 4 (2) of the Human Rights Act, which states: ‘No one shall be required to perform forced or compulsory labour. ...This Government has created – without Parliamentary authority – a complex array of schemes that allow Jobcentres to force people into futile, unpaid labour for weeks or months at a time".

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2085142/Unemployed-graduate-sues-ministers-forced-stack-shelves-Poundland.html#ixzz1jCAInzrG

Talking about this case soon brings people relating similar experiences. One friend's son is doing a plumbing course at college but has been sent to fill shelves in Tesco. A well-known chain laid off all paid staff in the run-up to Christmas and relied on those working for their dole. God bless us all, said Tiny Tim.

Poundland says it had a ‘positive experience’ of the work placement programme which was ‘designed to provide on-the-job training for those looking to retail as a career opportunity’. Poundland's press website says the chain, which was recently acquired by Warburg Pincus, a leading global private equity firm, aims to continue its impressive growth with plans to open a further 50 new stores in 2010/11, creating an additional 2000 jobs.

"Highlights for the year ending 28 March 2010: Operating profit of £21.5 million - up 81.5 per cent (2008/9 £11.8million)• Turnover £509.8 million (net of VAT) - up 28.7% (2008/9 £396.2 million)• c2,000 new jobs created". It does not say how many were paid. It also boasts that £180,000 was raised for Macmillan Cancer Relief. So perhaps young people like Cait Railly should put down their shelf-filling stints on their CV as "working for charity".

http://www.poundland.co.uk/press-centre/2010-press-centre/full-year-results/

Meanwhile to see how the problem is people on the dole not wanting to go after jobs, we go over to Llandudno, north Wales, where DFS the furniture store is due to open a new branch on February 18. So far the company has received 1,385 applications for the 16 jobs that it advertised.

Latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show that 9.1 per cent of Wales’ workforce were unemployed in the period of August to October 2011 - up from 8.4 per cent between May and July last year.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2085142/Unemployed-graduate-sues-ministers-forced-stack-shelves-Poundland.html#ixzz1jCAzVOfy


In these troubled times it is not just "ordinary" folk who are getting in trouble. Take TV chef Anthony Worral Thompson. As a friend on Facebook comments, "Millionnaire AWT, a Tory party fundraiser, was caught five times stealing food and wine from Tesco’s worth around £100. He got off with a warning. Nicolas Robinson, a 23-year-old student, was arrested for stealing water worth £3.50 from Lidl during the London Riots. He was given a 6 month prison sentence."

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/anthony-worral-thompson-arrested-for-shoplifting-cheese-and-wine.html
http://politicalscrapbook.net/2012/01/anthony-worrall-thompson-ybf/

Others have chipped in to cite the person who was jailed for receiving a tee shirt that had been nicked,and the juvenile sent down for stealing a plastic dustbin. Some even recalled AWT denouncing the rioters last Summer.

Now come on, fellows, let's be fair. Anthony Worral Thompson could presumably have afforded to pay for the wine and cheese he stole from the store in Henley on Thames, but had his mind on other things. Whereas the people who were sent to jail could not prove their families did not need what they stole, and anyway, the government had told the magistrates what kind of sentences it expected them to pass after the riots. And there were no riots in Henley on Thames, were there?

Seems AWT is still down to speak in schools and colleges for the Tory Young Britain Foundation (unlike those trade unionists I know who have prepared talks to give in schools explaining about trade unions, but find they can't get invited). So he will be able to explain why shoplifting like his is different.
http://politicalscrapbook.net/2012/01/anthony-worrall-thompson-ybf/

If this seems like a recipe for discontent, even disorder, let us note that the government is being asked to consider other means, besides punitive sentences, for teaching the 'oiks' their place.

Plans to open military-run academies in deprived areas were condemned as "national service for the poor" today.

Right-wing think tank Respublica urged the government to open a pilot programme of military academies in underprivileged areas to "tackle poor discipline and educational failure" in the wake of last summer's riots.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

It claimed the academies "would open up new opportunities for those lacking hope and aspiration. They would change the cultural and moral outlook of those currently engulfed by hopelessness and cynicism."

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/content/view/full/114063

Yeah right. Stand up straight there and speak when you're spoken to! Get in line there!
Not that I suppose they will be giving out any proper military training and hardware to practice with in those deprived areas? That would be dangerous.