Middle East Film: "Encounter Point"

By Broadside Staff Reporter Erica Terrini

With George Mason University’s standing as one of the most culturally diverse public universities in the nation, it is a priority to educate students, faculty and staff about the variety of cultures, nationalities and religions represented at the school.

One student organization at Mason that is working to do this is the Middle East Et Cetera Film Club.

The student organization presents an opportunity for the Mason community to watch films and then take part in a group discussion afterwards. In doing so, the group has been engaging students in open dialogue about current events and issues concerning different nationalities.

“We want to have more events to promote awareness and understanding of the Middle East and related issues,” said Laila Mokhiber, a METC member and undergraduate senior majoring in global affairs.

The films are chosen based on their relevance to the METC’s goal of educating the Mason community about the Middle East and other issues around the world.

“It is not just about watching the films, but the discussion is also very important,” Dr. Bassam Haddad said, who is the METC coordinator as well as Mason’s director of the Middle East Studies Program.

Haddad said, “We’re working to help people understand the Middle East through films but it also goes beyond the Middle East to other countries in Africa and South America.”

METC had planned to show a series of films for the spring semester including Iraq in Fragments directed by James Longley, which was the first of the three films to be shown.

The second film presented by METC was Encounter Point, directed by Ronit Avni who is also the founder and executive director of the non-profit organization Just Vision, which works to raise awareness of the peace builders for the Israeli and Palestinian conflict in the Middle East.

Just Vision has three base locations which include New York, Washington, D.C. and Jerusalem. The third and final film to be shown by METC for the spring semester is Meeting

Resistance, directed by Steve Connors and Molly Bingham. It is scheduled to be shown tonight at 7:30 p.m. in the Johnson Center Cinema. The film Encounter Point was shown last Monday, also in the JC Cinema.

Irene Nasav, a representative for Just Vision, introduced the film and gave a brief background of the documentary and a brief background of the Just Vision organization.

The documentary focused on the lives, backgrounds and efforts of eight peace builders who promoted non-violence resistance to the Israeli and Palestinian conflict.

“I think there are efforts happening and it takes a lot of hope and a lot of courage to do what people are doing,” Meriana said Alrabadi, a member of METC who is an undergraduate student majoring in government international politics.

“Grass roots movements are very important and needed and both sides are struggling,” Alrabadi said.

In addition, Alrabadi continued to discuss how important it is to reach out to others to fix the problem.

“They need to reach out to a common ground in order for the suffering to end.”

Dr. Yehuda Lukacs, who is the associate provost for International Programs and the director for Mason’s Center for Global Education, held the discussion that was held after the documentary was shown.

The discussion allowed members of the audience to voice their personal critiques of the documentary and presented an open floor discussion for viewpoints on the Middle Eastern conflict.

The group discussion also presented a different aspect to the conflict that is not as publicized as the violence resulting from the conflict itself.

“It’s good to see student’s interested in perspectives that are not displayed in the main stream media,” Alrabadi said.
According to the audience, the idea that opportunities are available to educate, voice personal perspective and stay informed on conflicts pertaining to the Middle East.

Therefore, there is more open dialogue, which better serves the integrated Mason community.