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High-profile Palestinians from around the world have joined forces to create a video expressing their love for Jerusalem.
“Why do I love Jerusalem?” reads the opening sequence of the short video. The phrase is translated into English, French, Russian and Spanish.
An homage to Palestine
Dubbed “a message of love”, the black-and-white clip features Mohamed Hadid, businessman and father of models Gigi and Bella, as well as Academy Award-nominated and Bafta-winning filmmaker Farah Nabulsi, chef Fadi Kattan, mountaineer Mostafa Salameh and actors Yasmine Al Massri and Eyas Younis, alongside authors, composers, journalists and Olympic athletes. Their heartfelt messages are delivered in Arabic, English, French, Japanese, Russian, Serbian and Spanish, highlighting the global nature of the Palestinian diaspora.
SAG-AFTRA Panelists Share Struggles Of Actors Of Middle Eastern & North African Descent Deadline 2 hrs ago
Five years ago, an actor of Middle Eastern descent arrived at a studio test for a major cable TV show that was looking to diversify its cast and was asked by the casting director what percentage Latino he was. “I’m not Latino,” he replied. “I’m Egyptian.” Without apologizing, the casting director said: “We can’t move you forward, unfortunately, because that’s not diverse.”
The actor told Deadline: “It was stated as factual, as if that is the normal trend in the business. Which is weird because everywhere else I’m never considered white definitely not by U.S. Customs when I cross the border and get randomly selected and held back for two to four hours.”