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Logline

As Israel’s war on Gaza intensified, students and faculty across the US mobilized for justice in Palestine. Often mocked and accused of antisemitism, they defied escalating waves of repression and censorship. The film aims to embolden those who refuse to be silenced by this new era of McCarthyism

Synopsis

The production of The Palestine Exception is itself a response to this crucial moment in history. Across the world we’ve seen the largest anti-war protests since the 1970s with people of all backgrounds calling for an end to Israeli occupation and Palestinian suffering. In the US, these calls have been met with widespread and often violent repression. Professors speaking up about Palestine have been under threat of losing their jobs for decades, but it came into full view after October 7th.

University presidents were grilled by right-wing members of Congress and pressured to resign. As Israel killed tens of thousands of Gazans with US-made bombs, destroying schools, homes, hospitals, and mosques in the process, the US Congress and university administrators accused activists of anti-semitism and called for increased policing of protests. Set against this repression are rulings by the UN International Court of Justice on Israel’s campaign of genocide and its history of ethnic cleansing and other war crimes.

For large portions of the American population, especially younger generations, the injustices in Palestine were undeniable and the genocide in Gaza intolerable. In this politically charged context, the Palestine exception to academic freedom and free speech takes center stage, at once more vulnerable and more harshly enforced than ever before.

This new era of anti-war activism revisits tactics and memories of earlier periods of campus politics, from protests against the Vietnam War, the Black Power, gay rights and feminist movements, to the boycott campaign against South Africa and apartheid. Drawing on scholars Ellen Schrecker and Saree Makdisi for history and context, the film features four activist academics (Ted Khoury, Sophie Smith, Jennifer Gaboury, Premilla Nadasen) and how the personal became political in this critical year of the movement.
 

Meet the Filmmakers

Jan Haaken – Director/Producer
Jan Haaken is professor emeritus of psychology at Portland State University, a clinical psychologist, and award-winning documentary filmmaker. Her documentary films focus on work carried out in contested social spaces and in sites of political controversy. Haaken has directed nine feature films, including most recently the 2-part NECESSITY Series: Oil, Water, and Climate Resistance and Climate Justice & the Thin Green Line, released in 2023, and ATOMIC BAMBOOZLE: The False Promise of a Nuclear Renaissance, completed in 2023. Haaken is author of Pillar of Salt: Gender, Memory, and the Perils of Looking Back, Hard Knocks: Domestic Violence and the Psychology of Storytelling and Psychiatry, Politics, and PTSD: Breaking Down and co-editor of Memory Matters: Understanding Recollections of Sexual Abuse.

Jennifer Ruth – Co-Director
Jennifer Ruth is a professor of film studies at Portland State University. She writes extensively about academic freedom and higher education in outlets such as The New Republic, Truthout, Academe, Academe blog, Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, LA Review of Books and Ms. She is the author of one book and the co-author, with Michael Bérubé, of two – The Humanities, Higher Education, and Academic Freedom: Three Necessary Arguments and It’s Not Free Speech: Race, Democracy, and the Future of Academic Freedom. She is the co-editor, with Valerie Johnson and Ellen Schrecker, of The Right to Learn; Resisting the Right-Wing War on Academic Freedom, forthcoming from Beacon Press.

Marlene Eid – Producer
Marlene Eid, graduate of the Sorbonne university in Paris, is on the psychology faculty at Portland Community College (PCC). Marlene is a Palestinian American born and reared in East Jerusalem, where she grew up under Israeli military occupation. She is a lifelong advocate of Palestinian human rights, and a defender of social justice issues. Previous to PCC, Marlene worked at Portland State University (PSU), where in addition to teaching psychology and women studies, she worked as the coordinator of Arab Studies at the Middle East Studies Center.

In 1990, Marlene traveled to the Gaza Strip and was one of the founding members of the Gaza Community Mental Health Program. While establishing the first mental health program in the Gaza city, she developed a play therapy program for the children, training programs for the working team, and mental health training for UNRWA clinic doctors. Marlene worked with international agencies such as World Health Organization, United Nations, International governmental and non governmental agencies, and local Institutions in Gaza.

In 2015 Marlene founded, and was the first president of PCRF (Palestine Children’s Relief Fund) chapter in Portland, Oregon. The program provided medical care and prosthetic limbs to Palestinian children with difficult cases where care could not be provided otherwise.

Kevin Foster – Associate Producer and Communications Coordinator
Kevin Foster is a journalist and multimedia professional. He focuses on
marginalized voices and the intersection of politics and social justice. In his free time he enjoys surfing and rock climbing at crags around the PNW.

Jeff Harshman – Editor
Jeff is a multidisciplinary filmmaker with an emphasis in post-production. When he’s not writing, planning, shooting or splicing he enjoys hiking in the abundance that is the PNW with his wife, two growing daughters and overly affectionate Boston Terrier, Zuri. He also loves good food and bad puns.

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Contact

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