Despite the bombs, the silence, the complicity, the dehumanisation, and despite attempts to obliterate their existence, their past and present, Palestinians refuse to disappear, they are here to stay. Being is not premised on a recognition exacted from those implicated in your colonisation and erasure. Rather it is a practice and politics of patience and refusal, of a will to remain and thrive decade after decade, intifada after intifada.
Refusing to Disappear, an initiative by United Screens for Palestine, is a series of decentralised film screenings and discussions which began in different cities and venues across Belgium to celebrate the rich legacy of Palestinian storytelling through films. It is a program that asks us to bear witness, remember, and rage against the Israeli war on Palestine and to move collectively towards liberation, for a life in freedom and dignity for all, from the river to the sea.