Amer Shomali

THE SHOW MINUS ONE Hosted by, Bassam Haddad Dec 08, 2015 Transcript Noura Erakat (NE): Welcome to Status Hour. My name is Noura Erakat and I am here now with Naima Grace Shalhoub two days after a very special performance in the San Francisco County Women’s Jail in a Mother’s Day performance. I will let Naima tell us a little bit more about what the performance was and what led up to it. Naima Shalhoub (NS): Sure. Thank you Noura. It is so good be here with you and talking with you about this.

“Amer Shomali moves smoothly between various artistic practices and forms. His academic background in architecture and animation is coupled with a feverish interest in and increasing knowledge of the Palestinian visual heritage and compounded by a critical spirit, black humor and an expressive boldness that enables him to engage with different media and methods.

In the occupied West Bank, almost anything can come to be seen as a threat to Israel’s security. Even cows. Yes, cows. Here’s the story: During the activism of the first Palestinian intifada, residents of the West Bank town of Beit Sahour organized boycotts of Israeli goods in an act of civil disobedience intended to pressure the government. Local activists in 1988 hatched a plan to bypass Israeli suppliers and produce milk locally. They bought 18 cows from a kibbutz, a collective Jewish farm.