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Wednesday, June 22, 2005

The Translation of the Mahatma 

Over half a century after his death, Mahatma Gandhi continues to influence peace processes the world over.

Sponsored by the Skoll Foundation and the Global Catalyst Foundation, the film 'Gandhi', winner of Academy Awards in 1982, was recently dubbed into Arabic. As stated in this news article, the film's producers:

'hope to bring the legendary Indian revolutionary's message of non-violent resistance to Palestinian towns, villages and refugee camps by offering free screenings throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip and to distribute DVD copies to local civic groups to show to youth. The film also will be shown to Palestinians in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. '

Jeff Skoll (the co-founder of eBay) and Sir Ben Kingsley (the actor who portrayed Gandhi) hope that viewing the movie will help smoothe the peace processes in the Middle East. Gandhi is a highly respected icon in Palestine, but some of the viewers of the movie were skeptical about the applicability of the principles of non-violence to their own struggles.

A very interesting project indeed, but will it work.....?