Naila and the Uprising
{{Short description|2017 documentary film by Julia Bacha}}
{{pp|small=yes}}
{{italic title}}
Naila and the Uprising is a 2017 documentary film focusing on the story of Palestinian feminist Naila Ayesh and other Palestinian women who played prominent roles in the First Intifada in the late 1980s.{{cite web|date=15 March 2018|title='My story is one of many': The Palestinian women behind the First Intifada|url=https://www.middleeasteye.net/features/my-story-one-many-palestinian-women-behind-first-intifada|author-last=Hankir|author-first=Zhara|access-date=9 December 2024|work=Middle East Eye}}
Background
Naila Ayesh is a Palestinian feminist from Nablus, West Bank, born in 1961. As a young adult in the 1980s, she joined the left-wing Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.{{cite web|date=25 July 2018|title=Naila Ayesh : figure discrète de la première intifada palestinienne|url=https://www.lorientlejour.com/article/1127035/naila-ayesh-figure-discrete-de-la-premiere-intifada-palestinienne.html|author-last=Delpuech|author-first=Aïda|access-date=9 December 2024|work=L'Orient-Le Jour}} In 1987, while pregnant, she was arrested by the Israeli Shin Bet and detained in the Moscovia Detention Centre in Jerusalem.{{cite web|date=13 September 2018|title=How the Oslo Accords Betrayed the Palestinian Women Behind the First Intifada|url=https://theintercept.com/2018/09/13/oslo-accords-palestinian-women-first-intifada-naila-and-the-uprising/|author-last=Speri|author-first=Alice|access-date=9 December 2024|work=The Intercept}} There, she was tortured until she miscarried and was subsequently denied medical treatment.{{cite web|date=1 July 1987|title=Wednesday, July 1, 1987|url=https://chronology.palestine-studies.org/node/12909|author-last=|author-first=|access-date=9 December 2024|work=The Palestine Chronology}} Following a report by a Hadashot journalist exposing the torture, Ayesh was released later in the 1987.{{cite web|date=7 November 2018|title=As a journalist, I learned not to believe anything the Israeli army says|url=https://www.972mag.com/journalist-first-intifada-learned-believe-idf-says/|author-last=Rapoport|author-first=Meron|access-date=9 December 2024|work=+972 Magazine}}{{cite web|date=31 August 2021|title=On Israel’s History of Targeting Pregnant Palestinian Women|url=https://www.palestinechronicle.com/on-israels-history-of-targeting-pregnant-palestinian-women/|author-last=Blend|author-first=Benay|access-date=9 December 2024|work=The Palestine Chronicle}} She later played a role in organising protests during the First Intifada and co-founded the Women’s Affairs Center in the Gaza Strip.{{cite web|date=27 June 2010|title=Palestinian says women’s rights forgotten in Gaza|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-jun-27-la-fg-gaza-feminist-qa-20100627-story.html|author-last=Sanders|author-first=Edmund|access-date=9 December 2024|work=Los Angeles Times}}
Summary
The documentary was directed by Brazilian director Julia Bacha and produced by Just Vision.
Suhad Babaa of Just Vision stated that Palestinian women "stepped into leadership positions when thousands of men were arrested, deported or killed during Israel’s repression of the uprising," but that the role of both women and nonviolent resistance in the First Intifada has been overlooked.{{cite web|date=9 December 2017|title=It’s Time To Admit The First Intifada Was Nonviolent – And Led By Women|url=https://forward.com/opinion/389614/its-time-to-admit-that-the-first-intifada-was-a-nonviolent-movement-led-by/|author-last=Babaa|author-first=Suhad|access-date=9 December 2024|work=The Forward}} Bacha has stated that she "didn’t actually launch the project wanting to make a feminist movie," but that the Intifada grew to the size it did "was because women played such a strong leadership role, and that emerged in the process of the research we conducted."{{cite web|date=28 November 2017|title=The Radical Women at the Heart of Palestine’s First Intifada|url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-radical-women-at-the-heart-of-palestines-first-intifada/|author-last=Zimmerman|author-first=Amy|access-date=9 December 2024|work=The Daily Beast}}
Reception
The Hollywood Reporter reviewed the documentary as "by turns startling and dismaying," saying that it "paints an indelible picture of how, with many men deported or arrested, women stepped into the arena of political and social organizing, only to be told their role was over when Yasser Arafat returned from exile to form the Palestinian Authority in 1994 with a crew of all-male leaders."{{cite web|date=19 December 2017|title=‘Naila and the Uprising’: Film Review|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/naila-uprising-1069251/|author-last=|author-first=|access-date=9 December 2024|work=The Hollywood Reporter}} Khelil Bouarrouj of the Institute for Palestine Studies has described the documentary as "the docudrama on Palestine for the MeToo movement," saying that the Palestinian women of the First Intifada "came damn close to victory until the boy's club led by the Old Man pushed aside the very women who embody Palestinian hope."{{cite web|date=21 January 2018|title=“Naila and the Uprising” is the docudrama on Palestine for the #MeToo movement.|url=https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/232097|author-last=Bouarrouj|author-first=Khelil|access-date=9 December 2024|work=Institute for Palestine Studies}} Jennifer Creery of the Hong Kong Free Press stated that the documentary "at times makes for uncomfortable viewing" and was "a harrowing story, beautified by intricate illustrations that depict a tale of bitter loss, resistance and unwavering hope."{{cite web|date=30 March 2019|title=A life in resistance: Naila Ayesh and the women of the First Palestinian Intifada|url=https://hongkongfp.com/2019/03/30/life-resistance-naila-ayesh-women-first-palestinian-intifada/|author-last=Creery|author-first=Jennifer|access-date=9 December 2024|work=Hong Kong Free Press}}