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While Israelis celebrated the 60th anniversary of their nation’s birth with fireworks and barbecues, sirens wailed across the Palestinian territories in mourning, last month. It was a day of grief for Palestinians, who refer to the founding of Israel as the Catastrophe, or al-Nakba. Thousands took to the streets to commemorate those exiled or killed in the conflict that followed the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. More than 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled, their property was expropriated and they have not been allowed to return. Nearly 5 million Palestinians and their descendants still live in makeshift refugee camps across the neighbouring region. President Mahmoud Abbas spoke of the pain and suffering of the Palestinians. “There are two peoples living on this beloved land - one celebrates independence and the other feels pain of the memory of its Nakba. “We mark this anniversary not for the sake of consoling ourselves, but as a reminder of the long and glorious struggle of the Palestinian people whose wounds, pains and sufferings have not dissuaded them from rising like a phoenix.”
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To mark the anniversary, schools and universities were closed for the day and people marched to Israeli checkpoints. At noon, traffic came to a standstill and sirens sounded across the territories to mark the start of a two-minute silence.

This year marks a particularly dark period for Palestinians. Hopes of an independent state appear dimmer than ever and fighting between Palestinian political factions has left the territories crippled.
The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), which groups 57 Muslim countries, reaffirmed its unwavering support to the Palestinian people on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of occupation of Palestine lands by the Jewish usurpers.

In a statement, the OIC appealed to all Muslim States to continue their support in all its forms to enable the Palestinian people to recover their national rights and to establish their independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. Following the full text of the statement: We recall these days, the sixtieth anniversary of the tragedy that befell Palestine and led to the dispersion of the Palestinian people who have been uprooted from their homeland and led to live in diasporas across the world, as victims of an arch-crime of the contemporary era, a crime the like of which was never registered in human history, with the Palestinian people being displaced, exiled and dispersed. Since the onset of this six- decade long tragedy, the international community has remained impotent to implement the resolutions of the UN Security Council and General Assembly that recognize and support the Palestinian people’s right to return, to self-determination and to the establishment of their own independent Palestinian state.

In a new book titled “Guilty – Hollywood’s Verdict on Arabs after 9/11", Jack Shaheen praises American movies and TV dramas that sympathized with Muslims after the terrorist attacks, but he also condemns other films that promoted negative perceptions about Islam. “In the United States, you can say anything you want about Islam and Arabs and get away with it. In other words, as someone said, ‘You can hit an Arab free’,” said Shaheen, also author of “Reel Bad Arabs — How Hollywood Vilifies a People.” Shaheen specifically criticized some movies that “portrayed Muslims in dark shades”, including “The Kingdom” (2007) and “The Four Feathers” (2002). He also condemned the popular TV drama “24”, which he said created a new “Arab-American bogeyman”.

Shaheen, an American of Lebanese origin, analyzed the portrayal of Muslims and Arabs in over 1,000 films, including at least 100, shot after 9/11. From action movies such as “True Lies” (1994) to comedies including “Father of the Bride Part II” (1995) and Disney’s animated “Aladdin” (1992), Shaheen identifies films that have perpetuated damaging stereotypes of Arabs and Muslims. The images have remained primarily fixed and have only been changed in the sense that they have become more vindictive and damaging. “There’s nobody in authority, no political leader, no Hollywood personality who has taken a stand and said that demonizing Arabs and Muslims is the same as demonizing Jews or blacks or Asians or any other racial or ethnic group,” he says.
Shaheen, a retired professor of mass communications, worked as a consultant in movies such as the 2005’s “Syriana” and the 1999’s “Three Kings”.

Among other movies that Shaheen praised was the 2006’s “ Babel “ and “Rendition” that was released in 2007, which he describes as movies that are “more complex, even-handed Arab portraits.” But “very few people are listening,” he said. One of the most criticized books in Shaheen’s book is “The Kingdom”, an action movie about FBI agents going after terrorists in Saudi Arabia .
He described the movie as one of the most damaging portrayals of Arabs in which “even Arab children cannot be trusted.” Shaheen also argues that Hollywood ’s negative portrayal of Arabs and Muslims helps the American government to pursue its foreign policy in the Middle East . Decades of depicting Arabs and Muslims as the enemy “made it that much easier for us to go into Iraq ,” he said. “There were very few people protesting. “The images help enforce policy,” he said.