Khaled Jarrar Denied Travel to NY Exhibition

From tomorrow and until end of September the New Museum in New York will have ”a major exhibition of contemporary art from and about the Arab world, entitled ”Here and Elsewhere”.

Palestinian multi-artist Khaled Jarrar based in Ramallah – we have written about his excellent documentary ”Infiltrators” on this site several times – was supposed to go but was denied to travel. This is a quote from +972 (link below to whole article):

“Khaled Jarrar… was supposed to be in New York by now… but Israel isn’t letting him go. Jarrar arrived at the Allenby border crossing at 3:00 p.m. yesterday. Rather than cross into Jordan, as he has done many times over the last few years, he was told he could not exit due to “an intelligence order.” After 10 hours spent waiting, he returned home at around 1 a.m. today…”

And quotes from Khaled Jarrar himself: “After a very long wait and without understanding what was happening, I was informed that there are “security reasons” that will prevent me from traveling until the 1st of August. For now, that means that I missed my morning flight from Amman to New York, that I will miss the opening of the show at the New Museum, and that I will miss my ‘artist talk’ with Lamia Joreige and Charif Kiwan, with Natalie Bell, that was supposed to happen on the 16th of July. Yesterday was the longest day of my life and a day of humiliation. I felt real racism on the part of the security at Allenby Bridge. When this one soldier was talking to his superior officer,  I understood he called me “zevel” [“garbage,” in Hebrew -NY]. I shouted at him that I was no “zevel” and he was impolite to call me that. No one listened to me, like I did not even exist.”

To call it a humiliation is a total understatement!

http://972mag.com/israel-bars-prominent-palestinian-artist-from-traveling-to-n-y-exhibit/93586/