Abstract
This chapter follows the development of the photography department after the Karameh battle, during which the fedayeen successfully resisted the Israeli army at their bases in Al-Karameh in 1968. Through accounts by some of the photographers, we learn how new members of fighters joined and about the fighting spirit that brought them together, working tirelessly on the first exhibition about the revolution, which displayed large pictures featuring the fedayeen in huge tents near the Palestinian refugee camp Al-Wihdat. The exhibition raised the morale of people in the camps and encouraged Palestinian and Arab artists like Mustafa Hallaj, George Bahgoury, and Bahjat Othman to participate with posters and paintings about the revolution. This period includes Sulafa Jadallah’s life-changing injury which prevented the continuation of her work as a cinematographer.
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Notes
- 1.
Ribhi Mohammad Hussein (Ribhi Al-Karameh) was a fighter who quit his studies in Germany to join Fatah. He was nicknamed Ribhi Al-Karameh due to his heroic sacrifice in the Battle of Al-Karameh on March 21, 1968. During the battle, Ribhi blew himself up, along with a number of fighters, exploding an Israeli military tank as it drove over a trench advancing towards fedayeen targets. The operation barred the advancement of the tanks along the battlefield, contributing to the development of the battle in favor of the revolution.
- 2.
William Nassar was a political and military fighter who joined Fatah from its very beginning. He conducted several operations in the Occupied Territories and was detained in the occupation prisons from 1968 to 1982, eventually released in a prisoner’s exchange. He was an academic researcher and writer and recently passed away on June 6, 2019, after a long battle with illness.
- 3.
Mustafa Wafi, a Palestinian teacher who worked in the education sector in Algeria, joined Fateh in its early days, becoming the head of the Fatah office in Algeria.
- 4.
Walid Ahmad Al-Nimr, famously known as Abu Ali Eyad, was a Fateh military leader who also joined the movement in its very beginnings. He was a member of the first central committee and was responsible for the fighter training camps. He was martyred, after refusing to withdraw from the Battle of the Jerash Forests in 1971.
- 5.
The “middle strip” is both a PLO military designation for a geographic area in the middle of Palestine and a wing within Fatah. This term “middle strip” is also used in south Lebanon, among Fatah fighters’ bases.
- 6.
Al-Wihdat camp is one of the largest Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan. It was established after the Nakba in 1955 on the eastern edge of Amman. Over time, it has transformed into a large neighborhood, considered to be one of the most commercially active districts in the Jordanian capital, Amman.
- 7.
Mustafa Al-Hallaj was one of the first Palestinian fine artists. He developed a prominent school of Palestinian and Arab fine arts, and was a friend of the Palestine Film Unit, participating in some of its works. He died in a tragic accident, burning in the studio where he lived and worked in Damascus in 2002.
- 8.
Ahmad Al-Azhari, whose real name is Farouq Al-Qadi, was a well-known leftist Egyptian author and journalist who joined Fatah in 1968. He worked as the head of press and external relations with the Soviet bloc and socialist countries. He also worked as the legal advisor and head of Yasser Arafat’s office in the beginning of the 1970s.
- 9.
Abu Ammar (real name: Yasser Arafat) was a founding member of Fatah and head of its central committee since its establishment. A political and military leader, he headed the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) since its establishment in 1969 and the Palestinian National Authority after the return of PLO to the Occupied Territories in 1994. He was elected president in 1996 and remained in power until his assassination in 2004.
- 10.
Ihsan Bernawi, a militant woman who joined Fatah in its early stages, was a resident of Jerusalem and was forced to leave for Jordan to avoid being imprisoned after her participation in a military operation.
- 11.
The first clashes occurred late 1969 between a group from the Jordanian army and a group of fedayeen. Through the joint effort of the Palestinian and Jordanian leadership, the clash was quickly contained and halted.
- 12.
Abu Sabri (real name: Mamdouh Saydam) was a military leader and member of the Central Committee of Fatah. He joined the movement before it was launched, and was chosen deputy director of military operations for Al-‘Asifah forces after his participation in the Battle of Beit Furik in 1967 where he was the commander of the area of Jenin. He died from terminal illness in 1971.
Bibliography
Interview with Enaya Abu Awn conducted by the author at Sep 28th, 2017.
Interview with Naseef (Adil al Kesbeh) conducted by the author on June 27th, 2014.
Interview with Abdelraheem Jadallah conducted by the author on February 27th, 2018.
Interview with Eram Jadallah conducted by the author on June 23rd, 2018.
Interview with Nabil Mahdi conducted by the author on June 20, 2017.
Interview with Amneh Naser conducted by the author on September 24th, 2017.
Interview with Abu Thareef conducted by the author on August 15th, 2016.
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Habashneh, K. (2023). Development of the Photography Department. In: Knights of Cinema. Palgrave Studies in Arab Cinema. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18858-9_2
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