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Juliano Mer-Khamis (Template:Lang-he-n, Template:Lang-ar; ‎29 May 1958– 4 April 2011) was an Israeli actor, director, filmmaker and political activist of Jewish and Christian Arab parentage. On 4 April 2011, he was assassinated by a masked gunman in the Palestinian city of Jenin, where he established the Freedom Theatre.

Biography

Juliano Khamis (later Mer-Khamis) was born in Nazareth, the son of Arna Mer, a Jewish communist, and Saliba Khamis, an Israeli-Arab intellectual and one of the leaders of the Israeli Communist Party in the 1950s. He had two brothers, Spartacus and Abir. His grandfather was Gideon Mer, a scientist who pioneered the study of malaria during the British Mandate. In his youth, he adopted his maternal surname, Mer, and served in the Israeli Defense Forces as a combat soldier in the Paratroopers Brigade. In a 2009 interview with Israel Army Radio, Mer-Khamis said of his background: "I am 100 percent Palestinian and 100 percent Jewish."

Mer-Khamis was married to Jenny, a Finnish activist he met in Haifa. They had a son, Jay, and were expecting the birth of twins at the time of his death.

Film and acting career

Mer-Khamis's first film, The Little Drummer Girl, was an American thriller from 1984 directed by George Roy Hill and starring Diane Keaton, which dealt with the Israeli-Arab conflict. He starred in Avi Nesher's film, Za'am V'Tehilah (1985). Later he appeared in such Israeli films as 51 Bar (1985), Wedding in Galilee (1987), Tel Aviv Stories (1992), Zohar (1993), Under the Domim Tree (1994), and Overture 1812 (1997). He appeared in several films by Amos Gitai: Kedma, Esther (1986) and Kippur (2000).

In 2002, Mer-Khamis was nominated for the Ophir award for Best Actor for his role in Kedma. One of the last films in which he appeared was the Palestinian film Salt of this Sea (2008), which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

He performed on stage with Beit Lessin Theater and Habima Theatre. In 2003, he produced and directed his first documentary film, Arna's Children, together with Danniel Danniel. The film is about his mother's work to establish a children's theatre group in Jenin during the 1980s. Seven years after the death of his mother, and following the battle in Jenin in 2002, Mer-Khamis returned to Jenin to meet and interview the children who participated in the theater, and found out that some became militants and were killed.

In 2006, following a wave of international support which was followed by his film, Mer-Khamis opened a community theater for children and adults in Jenin, called The Freedom Theatre.

The Freedom Theatre

In 2006, Mer-Khamis established the Freedom Theatre along with Zakaria Zubeidi, a former military leader of the Jenin Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, Jonatan Stanczak, Swedish-Israeli activist, and Dror Feiler, Swedish-Israeli artist. The Freedom Theatre is a community theatre that provides opportunities for the children and youth of the Jenin Refugee Camp by developing skills, self-knowledge and confidence and using the creative process as a model for social change.

Death

Mer-Khamis was shot by masked gunmen in front of the theater he founded in Jenin. He was rushed to the Jenin Hospital, where he was pronounced dead after his arrival. PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad condemned the killing saying that "We cannot stand silent in the face of this ugly crime, it constitutes a grave violation that goes beyond all principles and human values and it contravenes with the customs and ethics of co-existence."

Based on the testimony of an eyewitness, Palestinian police charged Mujahed Qaniri, from Jenin's refugee camp, with having carried out the murder. There are varying accounts of Qamiri's affiliation, some describe him as a former member of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades who defected to Hamas, but a Hamas spokesman has denied any involvement, describing this as a purely criminal incident.

Filmography

Television and video

References

1. "Juliano Mer-Khamis laid to rest at Kibbutz Ramot Menashe". Ynetnews. 6 April 2011. Retrieved 6 April 2011. Arab-Israeli actor Juliano Mer-Khamis, who was murdered in Jenin on Tuesday is being laid to rest at the kibbutz Ramot Menashe cemetery, where he will be buried next to his mother Arna. Israeli and Arab actors accopanied him on his final journey.
2. http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-4052065,00.html
3. Israeli actor Juliano Mer-Khamis shot dead in Jenin Haaretz, 4 April 2011
4. Birenberg, Yoav (6 April 2011). "Juliano Mer's final curtain call". Ynetnews. Retrieved 7 April 2011. Many of the jolts and tribulations experienced by the three brothers stem from their childhood as the sons of an Arab intellectual father Saliba Khamis and a Jewish mother, Arna Mer, a relentless idealist who joined Maki (the Israeli Communist Party).
5. Actor Juliano Mer-Khamis gunned down in Jenin, Jerusalem Post
6. "Weddings on the Front Line". Macleans.
7. Dahlah, Saif. "Jewish-Arab director shot dead in northern West Bank". Agence France Presse. Retrieved 4 April 2011.
8. "Juliano Mer's final curtain call"
9. "Mideast can't bear bridge-building figures like Juliano Mer-Khamis"
10. "Actor Juliano Mer-Khamis gunned down in Jenin", Jerusalem Post
11. The Economist, "Juliano Mer-Khamis", 16 April 2011, pg. 92
12. ^ "PA forces nab Hamas suspect in Mer-Khamis murder". Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 5 April 2011.
14. "Israeli-Arab actor shot dead in West Bank"
15. "Jenin militant charged over theatre director murder". Yahoo! News. Jenin. AFP. 6 April 2011. Retrieved 7 April 2011. Police sources told AFP that Qaniri, a camp resident who is in his 30s, had been charged with the murder after being identified in three separate line-ups by the baby-sitter, who was sitting in the car when he opened fire.

External links

• Juliano Mer-Khamis at IMDb
• The Murder of an Actor/Activist - slideshow by Life magazine

Template:Persondata

• Use dmy dates from April 2011
• 1958 births
• 2011 deaths
• Deaths by firearm in the West Bank
• People from Jenin
• People from Nazareth
• Arab citizens of Israel
• Israeli activists
• Israeli film directors
• Israeli stage actors
• Israeli actors
• Israeli Jews
• Palestinian Jews
• Israeli murder victims
• People murdered in the Palestinian territories