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- The annual Human Rights Watch International Film Festival is underway here in
New York City, but one of its featured directors won’t be able to attend his
film’s U.S. premiere this weekend. That’s because Israel recently deemed
Palestinian filmmaker Amer Shomali a "security threat" and prevented him from
traveling to Jerusalem to obtain a U.S. visa. Then he went to Amman, Jordan,
where the U.S. approved a visa but said their visa machine was broken. Shomali
had previously attended half a dozen European festivals without incident, and
his film has drawn international acclaim. Interestingly, the film, "The Wanted
18," shows how Israel has historically tried to undermine any form of
Palestinian nonviolent resistance by branding such resistance as dangerous and
threatening, and recreates an astonishing true story from the First Palestinian
Intifada when the Israeli army pursued 18 cows, whose independent milk
production on a Palestinian collective farm was decl...
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