'Farha'; a slap in the face of 'Israel' despite silencing attempts
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The attempts to efface the 1948 Palestinian Nakba and the ethnic cleansing “Israel” practiced against the rightful owners of the land prove useless, and Farha is here to tell her story.
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'Farha'; a slap in the face of 'Israel' despite silencing attempts
The Jordanian movie “Farha” narrates the story of a tragedy, among hundreds of untold tragedies, that took place during the 1948 Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe) when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced out of their homeland by Zionist gangs. In the process, dubbed ethnic cleansing, mass killings were carried out, and mass graves are still unearthed up to this very day.
Israeli media reveal that squads from the Israeli Ministry of Security hid historical documents related to the Israeli nuclear project and evidence of mass killings and destruction of villages during the #Nakba.#Palestine pic.twitter.com/fqImDMWGSE
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) August 24, 2022
The movie, which “Israel” is making every attempt to silence, depicts how the dreams of a 14-year-old Palestinian girl called Farha were shattered overnight when her village came under the vicious attack of ruthless Israeli soldiers.
On the day of the massacre, Farha was ordered by her father to hide inside a locked pantry while she waited for him to return.
Looking through a small opening in the wall, she saw her dreams of leaving the village for a nearby city to attend school being shattered right before her own eyes. Farha’s eyes, which once shined with hope, turned dull; they were now focused on Israeli soldiers executing an entire Palestine, including two young children and a baby.
Israeli officials didn't want depictions of the true story of what happened to Palestinians in 1948 to be shown on Netflix. But Netflix stood firm & released 'Farha' today. Watch it!pic.twitter.com/FyJv13up5a
— Omar Baddar عمر بدّار (@OmarBaddar) December 1, 2022
It does not come as shocking news that "Farha", Filmmaker Darin Sallam’s debut set to be the Jordanian entry for the 2023 Academy Awards, is based on the true story of a friend of her mother, who is now living in Syria as a refugee, long after the incident.
According to Sallam, the movie, in many ways, could help in the healing process of memories brought upon by the merciless Israeli occupation. It stands as a slap in the face of the IOF that continue to carry out its massacres and crimes up to this very day.
on the same day israelis call for the boycott of Netflix’s Farha, claiming it creates a ‘false narrative’ of the Nakba, an israeli soldier shoots and kills a Palestinian young man at point blank range in a town near Nablus pic.twitter.com/pMwjOpwsmB
— Mohammad 🇵🇸 (@NotHamudy) December 2, 2022
“I’m not afraid to tell the truth. We need to do this because films live and we die,” Sallam said in an interview last winter following the film’s premiere at the Red Sea International Film Festival.
“This is why I decided to make this film. Not because I’m political, but because I’m loyal to the story that I heard.”
Panic mode led to silencing attempts
“Farha,” which literally translates to “joy” in Arabic, comes to expose all the Israeli attempts to deprive the Palestinians of any chance to rejoice.
It goes without saying that due to the attention it is getting, including it trending on social media, the movie threw the Israelis in at the deep end, dealing a mighty blow to them and leading “Israel” to blow a fuse as the occupation entity came to realize that all its attempts at effacing their massacres and crimes had just gone in vain.
Of course, Israeli officials denounced “Farha” and even threatened that there will be consequences for airing it.
“It’s crazy that Netflix decided to stream a movie whose whole purpose is to create a false pretense and incite against Israeli soldiers,” outgoing Israeli Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman said in a recent statement.
Lieberman went as far as suggesting to end funding to a theatre in Yafa just because it screened the film, with the “goal of preventing the screening of this shocking film or other similar ones in the future.”
Various other Israeli officials have denounced the production of “Farha” in public statements. In response to its screening on Netflix, there has been a deliberate, coordinated attempt to lower the film’s ratings online, not to mention a social media campaign calling on people to cancel their Netflix subscriptions.
Netflix, stop this disgrace and don't give a platform to a film that defames Israel and presents the IDF as baby killers!@netflix pic.twitter.com/kZuPCUX03P
— יוסף חדאד - Yoseph Haddad (@YosephHaddad) November 30, 2022
There are relentless attempts to take “Farha” off Netflix by any means possible. The fear of the truth being exposed to the whole world is driving the Israelis crazy. And so it seems, Palestinians are not even allowed to reflect their suffering through art.
Following the film’s release, Sallam said, “The story traveled over the years to reach me. It stayed with me. When I was a child, I had this fear of closed, dark places, and I kept thinking of this girl and what happened to her.”
“So when I grew up and became a filmmaker, I decided that this would be my debut feature,” she added.
Massacres; an Israeli signature
The massacres the Israeli occupation committed against Palestinians are countless, and they are exposed frequently as Palestinians recall their tragedies and sufferings.
The ethnic cleansing could not go unnoticed even by Israeli historians. The Tantura massacre is one of the various massacres that the Israeli occupation brutally committed against the people of Palestine with vile savagery.
"It could cause a whole scandal."
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) January 28, 2022
Israeli soldiers that took part in a massacre in 1948 at the Palestinian village of Tantura have admitted to a mass killing of #Palestinian civilians after decades.
Can you imagine the number of massacres that “Israel” has denied? #Palestine pic.twitter.com/VYnPUkqba3
Israeli soldiers that took part in the massacre in 1948 in the Palestinian village of Tantura have admitted to a mass killing of Palestinian civilians after decades, Haaretz revealed.
An Israeli director collected testimonies from Israeli soldiers that were present during the massacre in a documentary film entitled "Tantura".
For decades, Israel denied the massacre at Tantura in 1948. Now, the soldiers who committed the heinous acts of ethnic cleansing are confirming what Palestinians have said all along: villagers were systematically slaughtered. https://t.co/haAO36N360
— IMEU (@theIMEU) January 21, 2022
Moshe Diamant, one of the soldiers who finally admitted to the massacre, was reported as saying, "It mustn’t be told, it could cause a whole scandal. I don’t want to talk about it, but it happened. What can you do? It happened."
The villagers, according to Diamant, were shot to death by a savage using a submachine gun after the battle was over.
As Israeli officials try to bury what had happened during the 1948 Nakba, having buried thousands of Palestinians they killed in cold blood, the surviving Palestinians or progeny should be able to tell their stories, either in movies, songs, documentaries, and any art-related pieces.
To keep “Farha” available for millions of people to watch on Netflix, many social media users are speaking out in favor of the movie and the necessity of recounting reality no matter how hurtful it may be.
View this post on Instagram
One user called the Israeli outrage over the movie a "total joke".
The Israeli outrage over Netflix film Farha, on the Palestinian Nakba is a total joke.
— Robert Carter (@Bob_cart124) December 4, 2022
Netflix has platformed a ton of pro-Israel propaganda clap trap over the years.
Along comes ONE Palestinian film and they crumble like snowflakes. How weak.#Farha #Netflix pic.twitter.com/skbkwl6nYR
Israeli officials didn't want depictions of the true story of what happened to Palestinians in 1948 to be shown on Netflix. But Netflix stood firm & released 'Farha' today. Watch it!pic.twitter.com/FyJv13up5a
— Omar Baddar عمر بدّار (@OmarBaddar) December 1, 2022
Palestinians should be able to tell their tragedies, Palestinians should be able to speak up; Palestinians should be able to prove how “Israel” was established on the ruins, blood, and bones of the rightful owners of the land.
Anyone who empathised with Anne Franks story needs to watch Farha on Netflix. True Story of a Palestinian girl who survived the Nakba. Over 800,000 Palestinians displaced, 15,000 massacred,418 villages ethnically cleansed in 1948 when Europeans came to Palestine to claim ‘Israel’ pic.twitter.com/Jl6GjPVcrk
— Shareefa Energy (@ShareefaEnergy) December 3, 2022
![In a 2021 interview with Frontline by former US special representative James Jeffrey, he says he had "engaged with [HTS] via backchannels while serving in President Trump’s State Department. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Batoul Chamas)](https://alpha-en-media.almayadeen.net/media/image/2024/12/21/b4a69f2e-8682-43e4-9d37-49482b304ab3/3.png?v=2&format=webp "In a 2021 interview with Frontline by former US special representative James Jeffrey, he says he had \"engaged with [HTS] via backchannels while serving in President Trump’s State Department. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Batoul Chamas)")
