Memorial to 418 Palestinian Villages which were Destroyed, Depopulated and Occupied by Israel in 1948

Today I was going through some old video footage and decided to upload some excerpts of us working on this piece...this is from 6 years ago...pre 9/11...it was an amazing time to be an Arab in New York then. Our community was really active and vibrant in intellectual, political and cultural spheres.



These are video excerpts from the making of "Memorial to 418 Palestinian Villages which were Destroyed, Depopulated and Occupied by Israel in 1948"2001. This piece is a document (or the remains) of a 3 month community based project. Over 140 people came through my studio to sew and socialize, often there was live Arabic music. There were lawyers, bankers, filmmakers, dentists,consultants, playwrights, artists, human rights activists, teachers, etc. There were Palestinians (some of whom come from these villages), Israelis ( who grew up on the remains of these villages) and people from a multitude of countries. (I used the archive of Palestinian villages compiled by Walid Khalidi in "All That Remains". )