One of the biggest acts of plunder by Israel was of a vast Palestinian film archive looted by Israeli military forces in Beirut in 1982. The films are managed under the repressive colonial control of the Israel Defense Forces Archive, which thus conceals many of them and information regarding their origin. This article documents my efforts to disclose the films and locate their institutions in Beirut, to chart their history, name their film-makers and open a discussion about returning them. It also provides a deeper understanding of colonial mechanisms of looting
and truth production. I discuss the Third Palestine Cinema Movement and the various institutions that were part of the Palestinian revolution in the 1970s, with a focus on the Cultural Arts Section managed by Ismail Shammout.
| | | | Keywords | | | | art looting, plunder, seizure, censorship, declassification, colonial archives, Cultural Arts Section (CAS) - Information and National Guidance Department (also known as: Department of Culture and Information, or Arts & National Culture-Department of Information and Culture), Israel Defense Forces Archive (IDFA), Palestinian archives, Palestinian Cinema Institution, The United Media, Ismail Shammout,Tamam Al-Akhal, Khadijeh Habashneh, Mustafa Abu-Ali,Hani Jawhariyyeh, Sulafa Jadallah, Zeinab Shaath | | | Download the Article
| | | | The article in Berghahn Journals | | |
| | | |  | | ''IDF and Defense Establishment Archives. Film Seized from the PLO Archive in Beirut. Memories of Glow – PLO: The History of the Palestinians since 1919 in Paintings and Photographs.'' Footage of the film directed by Ismail Shammout plundered from the Cultural Arts Section. The film is also entitled sometimes in English Memories . . . and Fire. Courtesy of Tamam Al-Akhal and the Shammout family | | |
|
)
