Day: December 12, 2011

Electric Literature says I’m “hysterically funny… Jeez, someone hire this girl as a comedy writer.”

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Here is a KatieHalpe-centric excerpt of a longer review by Electrick Literature’s Emily Firetog of the Mischief + Mayhem Valentine’s Day Show I MC’d. Go to “read more” to read the whole article. 

1. Big crowd at Housing Works. There are never enough chairs! 2. Dale Peck, co-founder of Mischief + Mayhem, reads. 3. Ben Greenman (Celebrity Chekhov) takes a break from the reading to catch up on his favorite picture book about the first lady.

As my boyfriend lives a hundred and seventy-seven miles away and Valentine’s Day dinner over Skype seemed a pretty grim idea, I headed down to Housing Works Bookstore for Mischief + Mayhem’s take on the Day of Love, a reading that promised to be “evil, sarcastic, and mean.” The MC for the evening was Katie Halper – hysterically funny and “recently single” – who was happy to share her red flags for soon-to-fail relationships: writer-types, drinking straight out of the bottle, talking about how much of an asshole you are, aspiring to be a pot head. The good thing, she notes, about dating underachievers is that you don’t have to wish ill on them… they’re already living it.  Jeez, someone hire this girl as a comedy writer.

Dale Peck, co-founder of Mischief + Mayhem, read first, then had to run because he had a class to teach at The New School. He did, however, introduce us all to his boyfriend and gave him a box of chocolate in front of everyone. WTF, where’s the meanness and sarcasm in that? I barricaded myself in front of the door as he was trying to leave and asked why he started M&M: “We wanted to change the way people bought books. We’re bourgeois revolutionaries, we’re not blowing anything up. It’s boring and exciting.”

1. Max Blagg, journalist and poet, loves Valentine’s Day. Sort of. 2. MC Katie with an adoring fan. Actually, while I was talking to Katie about how funny she was, writer Cara Hoffman (whose novel So Much Pretty is out from Simon & Schuster next month) accosted Katie to say she was absurdly funny and listening to her was incredibly therapeutic. Why therapeutic? “I just finished writing a really dark book.” Katie thought she looked like Tina Fey.

1. I caught reader Marian Fontana (A Widow’s Walk) outside with friends Scott, Jesse and Tara. “We’re going for dinner and cocktails. I hope they have tables for four and not just two.” 2. And look! I wasn’t lying about 30 Rock! Watch out for the episode that takes place in a bookstore. You’re in the know!

Will 2011 Bring the End of the Israeli State As We Know it?

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Katie Halper interviews her long-lost non-relative Jeff Halperabout why he’s sure 2011 will be the end of Israel as we know it.

I first heard of Jeff Halper at Israel-Palestine-related events, where people would ask me if I was related to him. It took me 30 seconds of Googling to realize that I’d love to be related to this Minnesotan anthropologist, activist, writer, Nobel Peace Prize nominee, and founder and coordinator ofIsraeli Committee Against Housing Demolitions (ICAHD).

Though kindred spirits, we don’t seem to come from the same Halper stock. But we are Facebook friends, and it was through a Facebook message that Jeff informed me he’d be coming to the U.S. to raise awareness and money for ICAHD and conduct research on his next book on the Israeli arms industry. During our Halper-on-Halper interview, the non-Zionist explained why he had to move to Israel, how the most hawkish Israeli politicians are the biggest anti-Zionists, and how the recent events in Egypt are fulfilling his prediction that 2011 will be the end of Israel as we know it.

Katie Halper: What does ICAHD do?

Jeff Halper: I’ve lived in Israel now for 40-something years by now and I’ve been involved in the peace movement from the very beginning. We started the ICAHD in the middle of the 1990s, in the context of Netanyahu’s first election. Most of us knew there was no peace process anyway, but now it was really clear. Netanyahu’s election was the wake-up call. So a number of us from different organizations got together to think about how to re-engage resistance to the occupation And we went and talked to Palestinians and asked them what their priorities were. We asked them what they would like us to work on, what they’d like to work with us on. And the issue of house demolitions always came up.

So we took up that issue. It’s a powerful approach for a number of reasons. It’s very visual. The occupation can become very abstract. But here’s a family, here’s a bulldozer, this is their story. It’s something people can relate to. It’s also a very important source of solidarity with the Palestinians. And it’s a vehicle to show how the occupation works and to re-frame the conflict, which is really important. Israel has succeeded in capturing the public discussion, the discourse. The Israeli case can be put out in three seconds: it is a small Western democracy (read white), besieged by Arab Muslim terrorists. read the rest here.

Miral’s Rula Jebreal: The Palestinian Woman Who Wrote the Book That Started This Big Screening War

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Rula Jebreal, whose autobiographical novel inspired Julian Schnabel’s film Miral, condemns violence by Israelis and Palestinians, quotes Yitzhak Rabin, and is dedicated to peace. So why did the Israeli Government, the American Jewish Congress and the Anti-Defamation League try to stop the film’s premiere at the United Nations?

 

It’s not often that a movie’s theatrical release is an historic moment. But Miral, which opens today in LA and NYC, is the first Hollywood film to look at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the eyes of Palestinians Palestinian women, at that. The film is based on the autobiographical novel of Rula Jebreal, the Palestinian journalist, who was born in Haifa, raised in East Jerusalem, has lived in the Middle East, Europe and, most recently, New York. Directed by the New York-based Jewish-American artist and filmmaker Julian Schnabel, Miral offers glimpses of history, as experienced by Palestinian women, starting with the formation of Israel and ending with the Oslo Accords. It premiered at the UN’s General Assembly, on March 14th, drawing stars from Robert de Niro to Sean Penn, along with a storm of protest. Schnabel’s Jewish credentials are true blue–and white. His mother was the President of the Brooklyn Chapter of Haddassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization, in 1948, during the establishment of Israel as a state. Schnabel recalls seeing Exodus at Manhattan’s Rivoli Theater with his parents: “Everybody stood up when they sang ‘Hatikvah,’ and put their hands on their chests. My mother and father were very proud.” But Schnabel’s history and his film’s vision mattered little to the film’s critics. Seeing the movie, in fact, mattered little to the Israeli Government, the American Jewish Congress and the Anti-Defamation League, who, on principle, (unsuccessfully) called on the UN to cancel its March 14th screening. This week, days before Miral’s release, I talked to Rula Jebreal about her life, her story, the film, violence, and her optimism for a peaceful future for Israelis and Palestinians alike.

Katie Halper: Were you surprised by the response of the Israeli government and by American Jewish organizations like the AJC and the ADL?

Rula Jebreal: No, not at all. No, no, no, no. Absolutely not. No, no, no, no. After every screening, I see the fear in people’s eyes. This is their censorship response, their way of avoiding the truth. The movie is really about one thing: peace. And I’m not sure this is on their agenda. I’m more dangerous than Hamas. Hamas responds in such a stupid way–with violence. But people like me–artists, writers, intellectuals, journalists–raise awareness and consciousness. You can’t label them as the enemy. These are the people that build bridges.

KH: When I saw the film I kept waiting for something that people could construe as anti-Israeli or anti-Semitic, which is the charge made by the film’s most vocal critics, sadly without even seeing the film. But what I saw was a film filled with thoughtfulness and sensitivity. It certainly challenges the idea that we hear all the time–that all Palestinians hate all Jews.

RJ: I have to thank you very much for this interview. Many people shy away from interviewing a Palestinian. They avoid talking to me. In this country where there is supposed to be so much freedom of expression, there is still a fear of considering a certain perspective. I know what is important and that is telling stories. What I’m interested in is telling the story of civil society in war time. What are the implications of war on women in terms of security, in terms of freedom, in terms of sexual harassment? I think all of that is breaking the wall of silence. I know that’s not easy. The fact that in America, the land of freedom of expression, I see this concern, this fear of considering that point of view, makes me think there’s an issue here that needs to be addressed. There are always two sides to every story, and if we don’t listen to each other, how can we find a solution? This culture of demonization has been creating more violence.

KH: You collaborated with a director who is Jewish. So much for your being an Anti-Semite. But I guess there are those who can’t believe a Jew and a Palestinian can or should work together. Or more specifically, what kind of Jew would work with a Palestinian?

Continue reading “Miral’s Rula Jebreal: The Palestinian Woman Who Wrote the Book That Started This Big Screening War” →

New Video on Attempt to De-fund Planned Parenthood!

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Check out this video I co-wrote with Andy Cobb that The Partisans & Second City made! Also see my post on the issue here.

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