ArabishWay

Plant Sale for Palestine
2025-05-18 10:00 - 17:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | West Central Park, 1919 Harrison Ave NW, Olympia, WA, 98502
3000 Plants for Sale
Proceeds go to the International Solidarity Movement (@ismpalestine)

Join Boycott War Profiteers: Tell PCC to stop profitting from genocide Copy
2025-05-18 12:00 - 14:00 | PCC-Columbia City, 3610 S Edmunds St, Seattle, WA, 98118, United States
Sunday 5/18 from 12pm-2pm at Columbia City PCC
https://actionnetwork.org/events/518-columbia-city-pcc-table/

Bake Sale (+Tote Bags)
2025-05-18 12:00 - 16:00 | the Station (Beacon Hill), 1600 S ROBERTO MAESTAS FESTIVAL ST, Seattle, WA, 98144
Raising funds for the Sabbath family in Gaza.

Movie: From Ground Zero
2025-05-18 12:30 - 14:00 | Vashon Theater, 17723 Vashon Highway SW, Vashon, WA, 98070
Shortlisted for Best International Feature for the 2025 Academy Awards, FROM GROUND ZERO is an anthology project comprised of 22 short films created by filmmakers from Gaza. Launched by renowned Palestinian filmmaker Rashid Masharawi, the initiative was created during the current 2023/2024 conflict and aims to provide a platform for young Palestinian artists to express themselves through their craft.
Each film, ranging in length from three to six minutes, presents a unique perspective on the current reality in Gaza. The project captures the diverse experiences of life in the Palestinian enclave, including the challenges, tragedies, and moments of resilience faced by its people. Using a mix of genres including fiction, documentary, docu-fiction, animation, and experimental cinema, From Ground Zero presents a rich diversity of stories that reflect the sorrow, joy, and hope inherent in Gazan life.
Despite harsh filming conditions, Gaza’s vibrant artistic scene shines through this stunning anthology film, which offers an intimate and powerful portrait of daily life in modern-day Palestine – and the enduring spirit of its people.
In Arabic with English subtitles.
“The fact that this film even exists seems miraculous… [From Ground Zero] aims to humanize, to empathize, to go beyond the headlines and geopolitics. It aims to convey the hopes and dreams of everyday people, which persist even in dire circumstances.” Jennifer Green, Alliance of Women Film Journalists
“A powerful cry to the world that these filmmakers, collaborators, and people walking in the background are still there, still living under worsening conditions, and still need help. From Ground Zero is an unforgettable exhibition of the human spirit.” Monica Castillo, RogerEbert.com

Ya Hala Cafe and Retail Space: Heritage Hour (BIPOC Tatreez Circle)
2025-05-18 13:00 - 15:00 | Suzanne Zahr, Art & Architecture, 2441 76th Ave SE, Ste 160, Mercer Island, WA, 98040, United States
Remember, Ya Hala’s café and retail space is open to all
📣 IMPORTANT: Some events will require registration/RSVP so you can save a spot!
Take a look ahead at the calendar and then keep an eye out for links to sign up for specific events. You won’t want to miss out.
More details about each weekend’s events will drop on the Monday before. 👀

The Somali Table
2025-05-18 18:00 - 21:00 | the Pantry, 1417 NW 70th Street, Seattle, WA, 98117
Due to its location and landmass, Somalia is a true culinary crossroad. Indigenous Somali regional cuisines woven with lasting Italian, South Asian, and Middle Eastern influences have resulted in a cuisine that is dynamic and unique. Join local chef Ifrah F. Ahmed in class, where she will teach you about the food of Somalia and how to make some of her favorite classic dishes. On the menu: xawaash-spiced lamb (braised lamb shanks with xawaash spice and cilantro garlic sauce); muufo (corn flatbread); fuul (mashed fava bean and tomato stew); and bariis(Somali-style rice).
Please note: some classes can be adjusted for students with dietary restrictions, but many cannot. If you’re vegetarian, pescatarian, or gluten-free, you can use the drop-down menu on our events page to view the best classes to fit your needs. If a class you’re interested in doesn’t appear in that filtered view, please email us before registering and we’ll see if the class’s menu can be modified.

Seattle International Film Festival: Balconettes
2025-05-18 21:00 - 23:00 | SIFF Cinema Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave N,, Seattle, WA, 98109, United States
Want a discount on your ticket? Use code ARABISH51 for $3 when purchasing tickets!

While perhaps best known for her understated yet powerful performances in Portrait of a Lady on Fire and TÀR, Noémie Merlant showcases her equally striking talent for the WTF (weird, titillating, and fascinating) both in front of and behind the camera with her sizzling sophomore feature as director. In the thick of a near-apocalyptic heat wave in Marseille, we are introduced to our trio of cohabitating bosom buddies: neurotic, sexually frustrated writer Nicole (Sanda Codrenau), free-spirited camgirl Ruby (Souhelia Yacoub) – actress of Tunisian descent, and Élise (Merlant), an actress rapidly reaching her boiling point. A chance encounter with the brooding artist on the balcony across the way rapidly spirals into a bloody affair that threatens to haunt the girls forever—possibly literally. What begins as a sexy, sun-drenched romp reveals itself to be a blood-drenched, searing takedown of rape culture, and an equally tough and tender look at the necessity of female friendship. With this bombastic, hilarious, and heart-rending film, Merlant cements herself as not only a face, but a singular voice in contemporary cinema across the globe.

Other Showtimes:

MONDAY, MAY 19, 2025

SIFF Cinema Downtown
3:15 PM

Escalate Against Microsoft
2025-05-19 11:00 - 13:00 | WA
(Full location to be announced closer to the rally)
Join NO AZURE FOR APARTHEID for a community rally and send a clear message to Satya Nadella, Brad Smith, Mustafa Suleyman, and Microsoft execs: NO TECH WEAPONS FOR GENOCIDE! IOF OFF AZURE! DIGITAL ARMS EMBARGO NOW!
Microsoft Build is the Coachella of tech giant monopolies violating human rights. Held annually, #MSBuild is Microsoft’s largest conference of the year, where Microsoft plans to showcase their latest cloud and AI developments, all while those same technologies fuel war crimes, apartheid, and genocide. Let’s turn up and show Microsoft that there will be no business as usual while Microsoft and its execs have blood on their hands! #BoycottBuild
Microsoft Azure cloud offerings form the technological backbone of Israel’s automated apartheid and genocide systems – and the scale of Israel’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians would not be possible without Microsoft cloud and AI technology. Learn more, follow, and join our campaign at @noazureforapartheid! 🇵🇸

Seattle International Film Festival: Balconettes
2025-05-19 15:15 - 17:15 | SIFF Cinema Downtown, 2100 4th Ave, Seattle, WA, 98121
Want a discount on your ticket? Use code ARABISH51 for $3 when purchasing tickets!

While perhaps best known for her understated yet powerful performances in Portrait of a Lady on Fire and TÀR, Noémie Merlant showcases her equally striking talent for the WTF (weird, titillating, and fascinating) both in front of and behind the camera with her sizzling sophomore feature as director. In the thick of a near-apocalyptic heat wave in Marseille, we are introduced to our trio of cohabitating bosom buddies: neurotic, sexually frustrated writer Nicole (Sanda Codrenau), free-spirited camgirl Ruby (Souhelia Yacoub) – actress of Tunisian descent, and Élise (Merlant), an actress rapidly reaching her boiling point. A chance encounter with the brooding artist on the balcony across the way rapidly spirals into a bloody affair that threatens to haunt the girls forever—possibly literally. What begins as a sexy, sun-drenched romp reveals itself to be a blood-drenched, searing takedown of rape culture, and an equally tough and tender look at the necessity of female friendship. With this bombastic, hilarious, and heart-rending film, Merlant cements herself as not only a face, but a singular voice in contemporary cinema across the globe.

The Pantry: Egyptian Street Food
2025-05-19 18:00 - 21:30, 2025-05-20 18:00 - 21:30 | the Pantry, 1417 NW 70th Street, Seattle, WA, 98117
Join Nadia Tommalieh as she embarks on a culinary journey to the vibrant streets of Egypt! In this class you’ll dive into the world of kushari, a popular dish of rice, lentils, pasta, and chickpeas, topped with a spiced tomato sauce and crispy fried onions. No exploration of Egyptian street food is complete without ful medames—a hearty stew made from slow-cooked dried fava beans, herbs, and lemon. Also on the menu: feteer meshaltet, a flaky pastry that showcases the mastery of Egyptian baking. You’ll bake two versions of this dough: a savory one, and a sweet one with nuts, coconuts, and raisins. You’ll complete your culinary adventure with Sobia, a refreshing street drink made from coconut milk, rice, and rosewater, whose taste will transport you to the shores of the Nile.

Seattle International Film Festival: Khartoum
2025-05-19 21:30 - 23:30 | AMC Pacific Place, 600 Pine St suite 400, Seattle, WA, 98101, United States
Want a discount on your ticket? Use code ARABISH51 for $3 when purchasing tickets!
What begins as a street-level documentary of five ordinary lives in Khartoum—a civil servant, a tea vendor, a resistance volunteer, and two young bottle collectors—evolves into a radically inventive chronicle of a city at the edge of collapse. Shot on donated iPhones by four Sudanese filmmakers working alongside British director Phil Cox, production was interrupted when war erupted in April 2023. The filmmakers fled Sudan and regrouped in Nairobi, where they transformed the project using green screen re-enactments, animation, and dreamlike visual reconstructions.
The film’s five interwoven stories bear witness to lives disrupted by conflict but never reduced by it. A mother sings lullabies to shield her daughter; two boys flee militias on the back of an invisible lion; a government worker hides from a regime unraveling around him. Through surreal vignettes and raw detail, Khartoum refuses the distancing lens of crisis coverage.
So while Khartoum began as a vérité documentary shot in Sudan, it became a diasporic production: completed in exile, shaped by displacement, and creatively reassembled across borders. A collaborative act of remembrance and resistance, it is not simply about a city under siege—it is made by those who fled it, carrying its stories with them.
Other Showtimes:

WEDNESDAY, MAY 21, 2025 – AMC Pacific Place

1:30 PM

Contemporary Translated Works Book Group: Sand-Catcher by Omar Khalifah, Translated by Barbara Romaine
2025-05-21 11:30 - 13:00 | Virtual
Join the Contemporary Translated Works Book Group – Now Monthly!
Mechanics’ Institute, in partnership with the Center for the Art of Translation and our new presenting partner, Folio: The Seattle Athenaeum, is thrilled to announce the expansion of the Contemporary Translated Works Book Group into a monthly, member-led series! Beginning Spring 2025, we will host lunchtime discussions (12:00–1:00 pm PT) online via Zoom on the third Wednesday of each month, featuring thought-provoking literary selections from around the world.
Four young, Palestinian journalists at a Jordanian newspaper are tasked, on account of their heritage, with profiling one of the last living witnesses of the Nakba, the violent expulsion of native Palestinians by the nascent state of Israel in 1948. The old man has no desire to be interviewed, no desire for his memories to be preserved, no desire to serve as an inspiration for the youth of tomorrow. As threats from the team’s editor-in-chief put more and more pressure on the journalists, they must decide just how far they’re willing to go to get the old man on the record.
Join us at 11:30 AM for a Q&A with the translator before the discussion at 12:00 PM.
Free to Folio members.
Learn more and get tickets >>
Order Sand-Catcher >>

Seattle International Film Festival: Khartoum
2025-05-21 13:30 - 15:30 | AMC Pacific Place, 600 Pine St suite 400, Seattle, WA, 98101, United States
Want a discount on your ticket? Use code ARABISH51 for $3 when purchasing tickets!
What begins as a street-level documentary of five ordinary lives in Khartoum—a civil servant, a tea vendor, a resistance volunteer, and two young bottle collectors—evolves into a radically inventive chronicle of a city at the edge of collapse. Shot on donated iPhones by four Sudanese filmmakers working alongside British director Phil Cox, production was interrupted when war erupted in April 2023. The filmmakers fled Sudan and regrouped in Nairobi, where they transformed the project using green screen re-enactments, animation, and dreamlike visual reconstructions.
The film’s five interwoven stories bear witness to lives disrupted by conflict but never reduced by it. A mother sings lullabies to shield her daughter; two boys flee militias on the back of an invisible lion; a government worker hides from a regime unraveling around him. Through surreal vignettes and raw detail, Khartoum refuses the distancing lens of crisis coverage.
So while Khartoum began as a vérité documentary shot in Sudan, it became a diasporic production: completed in exile, shaped by displacement, and creatively reassembled across borders. A collaborative act of remembrance and resistance, it is not simply about a city under siege—it is made by those who fled it, carrying its stories with them.

Seattle International Film Festival: Happy Holidays
2025-05-21 20:30 - 22:30 | SIFF Film Center, 305 Harrison St, Seattle, 98109
Want a discount on your ticket? Use code ARABISH51 for $3 when purchasing tickets!
Oscar® winner Scandar Copti (Ajami) is back with a new film about a middle-class Arab family in Israel and the impact of the country’s divisions on every aspect of their lives, mundane and momentous alike.
Fouad’s business is in trouble, which has plunged him into debt. This has major implications for his wife, Hanan, a woman very invested in maintaining the family’s social position, especially in anticipation of their elder daughter Leila’s upcoming wedding. Son Rami has a different kind of problem. His Jewish Israeli girlfriend is pregnant, but how would they raise a child in a country where their relationship must be kept secret? This question takes on a new urgency when the couple become the object of mysterious threats. Meanwhile, younger daughter Fifi has a secret of her own. After a minor car accident, she ends up in the hospital where her medical records, including her sexual history, come to light, causing further upheaval for the family and Fifi herself.
This ensemble of characters (mostly played by non-professional actors) and their stories create a rare portrait of Arab and Jewish lives in Israel and the effects of social, political, and religious divisions on every aspect of those lives, mundane and momentous alike.
Other Showtimes:

THURSDAY, MAY 22, 2025 AMC Pacific Place

1:00 PM

Seattle International Film Festival: Happy Holidays
2025-05-22 13:00 - 15:00 | AMC Pacific Place, 600 Pine St suite 400, Seattle, WA, 98101, United States

Seattle International Film Festival: Everybody Loves Touda
2025-05-22 15:15 - 17:15 | SIFF Cinema Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave N,, Seattle, WA, 98109, United States
Want a discount on your ticket? Use code ARABISH51 for $3 when purchasing tickets!
In the latest film from Nabil Ayouch (Horses of God, SIFF 2014) co-written with his wife, director Maryam Touzani (The Blue Caftan, SIFF 2023), Touda dreams of being a sheikha, or traditional Moroccan folk singer. More than that, she is determined to be one, which is fortunate because the road ahead is a rocky one. A single mother with a young son to support, she sings at parties and in bars in her provincial town. But these opportunities are limited and fraught with risk, as her male audience’s “love” often shades into something more proprietary and threatening. She sets her sights on Casablanca and, leaving her son with her parents and ignoring the disapproval of her conservative brother, she heads to the big city. There Touda meets an older musician, a violinist who recognizes her ambition and her potential, and becomes a sort of mentor. With his help, she sets about to master the aita, a Moroccan musical genre rooted in poetry about the many struggles of life, from the personal to the political. As her singing improves, she can command higher fees and a more elite audience. But in a culture where female performers are as often eroticized and stigmatized as venerated, what does it really mean to be loved?

Other Showtimes:

TICKETS
Select showtime for pricing and tickets.

FRIDAY, MAY 23, 2025

SIFF Cinema Uptown
8:30 PM

Seattle International Film Festival: Moon
2025-05-22 20:00 - 22:00 | SIFF Film Center, 305 Harrison St, Seattle, 98109
Want a discount on your ticket? Use code ARABISH51 for $3 when purchasing tickets!
Sarah (played by provocateur performance artist Florentina Holzinger) is an Austrian professional MMA fighter who has just lost a career-ending fight. She’s tough, with a face that shows her decades spent brawling, and she doesn’t hesitate to accept a job offer that her friends and family believe is too good to be true: A wealthy Jordanian man has hired Sarah to be a private trainer for his three sisters, who never leave the mansion without a bodyguard. But who is this family and why are they under constant surveillance?
Moon is Kurdish-Austrian filmmaker Kurdwin Ayub’s thrilling sophomore feature, following her award-winning debut film Sonne (SIFF 2023). Moon has already garnered several awards for its enthralling portrayal of a family in peril, shown through the hardened eyes of a woman trying to navigate a life she doesn’t want. Ayub doesn’t give easy answers in this tense film that asks, “How can you save others when you cannot save yourself?”
Other Showtimes:

FRIDAY, MAY 23, 2025, AMC Pacific Place

11:00 AM

Seattle International Film Festival: To A Land Unknown
2025-05-23 13:15 - 15:15 | AMC Pacific Place, 600 Pine St suite 400, Seattle, WA, 98101, United States
Want a discount on your ticket? Use code ARABISH51 for $3 when purchasing tickets!
Mahdi Fleifel, who made the great documentary A World Not Ours (SIFF 2013) about the Ein el-Helweh refugee camp in Lebanon, where his parents were born, returns to the Festival with his fiction debut, To a Land Unknown.
The refugees in this story have made out of their camp and travelled to Athens, where they are stranded en route to Germany. Chatila is clever and resourceful, and it falls to him to come up with a plan; Reda, his cousin, is sweet but hapless, owing in part to a weakness for drugs. To raise the money they need for fake passports, they resort to increasingly desperate crimes: stealing, sex work, human trafficking. To sustain themselves, they nurture the fantasy of the café they plan to open in Germany, where Chatila’s wife will cook, and they’ll make enough money to bring the rest of their family, currently stuck in the camp.
While films about refugees are not uncommon, what sets this film apart is the way the director puts us squarely in Chatila and Reda’s shoes as they try to figure out how to reach their final destination, how to keep themselves alive in the meanwhile, and how to do it all without losing their humanity in the process.
Other Showtimes:

SATURDAY, MAY 24, 2025, Shoreline Community College

8:30 PM

Seattle International Film Festival: Everybody Loves Touda
2025-05-23 20:30 - 22:30 | SIFF Cinema Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave N,, Seattle, WA, 98109, United States
Want a discount on your ticket? Use code ARABISH51 for $3 when purchasing tickets!
In the latest film from Nabil Ayouch (Horses of God, SIFF 2014) co-written with his wife, director Maryam Touzani (The Blue Caftan, SIFF 2023), Touda dreams of being a sheikha, or traditional Moroccan folk singer. More than that, she is determined to be one, which is fortunate because the road ahead is a rocky one. A single mother with a young son to support, she sings at parties and in bars in her provincial town. But these opportunities are limited and fraught with risk, as her male audience’s “love” often shades into something more proprietary and threatening. She sets her sights on Casablanca and, leaving her son with her parents and ignoring the disapproval of her conservative brother, she heads to the big city. There Touda meets an older musician, a violinist who recognizes her ambition and her potential, and becomes a sort of mentor. With his help, she sets about to master the aita, a Moroccan musical genre rooted in poetry about the many struggles of life, from the personal to the political. As her singing improves, she can command higher fees and a more elite audience. But in a culture where female performers are as often eroticized and stigmatized as venerated, what does it really mean to be loved?

Virtual Lecture: The Timeless Thobe – Documenting Land, Heritage & Culture in Palestinian Dress
2025-05-24 09:00 - 11:00 | Virtual
Date: Saturday, May 24, 2025

Time: 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM EST
Location: Online, Zoom link will be emailed 24 hours prior to event
Instructor: Wafa Ghnaim, Dress Historian, Researcher & Educator
Registration Fee: Sliding scale
The thobe, a traditional hand embroidered dress made and worn by Palestinian women for centuries, is the bedrock of Palestinian identity through heritage, culture and land. For millennia, women in the eastern Mediterranean have showcased their skillful stitchery on their traditional dress, displaying unique motifs, colors and styles across the various villages of old Palestine.
After 1948, over 750,000 Palestinians were forced into exile, carrying their dressmaking and embroidery traditions with them into refugee camps and around the world. As the diaspora spread across the globe, the largest and longest-standing population of displaced people in the world, the thobe evolved into a symbol of national and cultural identity beyond borders.
In this live virtual lecture, dress historian, researcher, and educator Wafa Ghnaim will explore the evolution of the thobe and the visual language of tatreez (embroidery) as used on traditional Palestinian dress. From village styles to diasporic adaptations, this talk offers a compelling look at how dress documents the intertwined threads of history, memory, and identity.
What You’ll Receive:

Live access to the 2-hour lecture
A recording for 7 days after the live session

Important Notes:

Tickets are nonrefundable.
This is a live, virtual event hosted via Zoom.
Registration closes at 10:00 AM EST on May 24, 2025.
A Zoom link will be sent via email the day before the event.
The instructor reserves the right to review and decline registrations at her discretion to ensure a respectful and safe learning environment for all participants.
Space is limited to ensure an intimate and interactive experience.
Sharing your camera is required.

Radio Gaza
2025-05-24 19:00 - 2025-05-25 01:00 | Mosswood Loft, 932 12th Avenue, Upper, Seattle, WA, 98122
Get ready to get down for a cause!
@intisaarband presents: RADIO GAZA — a disco-fueled benefit for Palestine!
One week from Saturday — May 24th, 7PM–1AM — at @mosswoodloft!
Live grooves from @bijoux_seattle & @intisaarband
Dancefloor heat courtesy of @i.s.h_dj
Soulful vibes with poetry & Tatreez art by @halasalehtatreez
Henna magic from @ineedasandwich
Palestine merch by @sweetmalson
All proceeds go to the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund @thepcrf
Flyer by the brilliant @ryanjgill_gillco
$20 at the door or in advance — scan that QR and show up loud, proud, and ready to move.
See you under the mirrorball!

Seattle International Film Festival: Coexistence, My Ass!
2025-05-24 20:00 - 22:00 | SIFF Cinema Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave N,, Seattle, WA, 98109, United States
Want a discount on your ticket? Use code ARABISH51 for $3 when purchasing tickets!
Comedy about Israel and Palestine is a high-wire act and perhaps never more so than now, which is part of what makes this documentary about Israeli comedian Noam Shuster-Eliassi so riveting. With an Iranian-Jewish mother and an Ashkenazi Romanian father, Noam grew up in Neve Shalom/Wahat al Salam, an intentional community where Arab and Jewish families live together by choice, and where her left-wing parents moved the family in the early 1990s.
A committed activist for equal rights for Palestinians and Jews—as she explains, coexistence can only exist between equals—she studied International Relations at Brandeis before taking a job at the United Nations. When she was invited by Harvard to work on a peace project, she chose to develop her one-woman show, “Coexistence, My Ass!” Shooting on the film began in 2020 and tracks the show’s progress through COVID and Noam’s growing fame, as well as Noam’s own navigation of the attacks on October 7th, their impact on her friends and family, and the subsequent war on Gaza.
Consistent through it all is Noam’s clear-eyed insight—sometimes funny, sometimes deadly serious, sometimes both at the same time. Winner of the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Freedom of Expression.
Other Showtimes:

SUNDAY, MAY 25, 2025, SIFF Cinema Uptown

11:30 AM

Seattle International Film Festival: To A Land Unknown
2025-05-24 20:30 - 22:30 | Shoreline Community College Theater, 16101 Greenwood Avenue N. (Building 1600), Shoreline, WA, 98133
Want a discount on your ticket? Use code ARABISH51 for $3 when purchasing tickets!
Mahdi Fleifel, who made the great documentary A World Not Ours (SIFF 2013) about the Ein el-Helweh refugee camp in Lebanon, where his parents were born, returns to the Festival with his fiction debut, To a Land Unknown.
The refugees in this story have made out of their camp and travelled to Athens, where they are stranded en route to Germany. Chatila is clever and resourceful, and it falls to him to come up with a plan; Reda, his cousin, is sweet but hapless, owing in part to a weakness for drugs. To raise the money they need for fake passports, they resort to increasingly desperate crimes: stealing, sex work, human trafficking. To sustain themselves, they nurture the fantasy of the café they plan to open in Germany, where Chatila’s wife will cook, and they’ll make enough money to bring the rest of their family, currently stuck in the camp.
While films about refugees are not uncommon, what sets this film apart is the way the director puts us squarely in Chatila and Reda’s shoes as they try to figure out how to reach their final destination, how to keep themselves alive in the meanwhile, and how to do it all without losing their humanity in the process.

Mohamed AlFares Live in Seattle 2025
2025-05-24 21:30 - 2025-05-25 01:00 | Mirra | Social Entertainment Venue – Lincoln South Tower (3rd Floor), 500 Bellevue Way Northeast #Suite 310, 3rd floor, Bellevue, WA, 98004
One night only: Mohamed AlFares brings the heat to Seattle! Don’t miss this iconic performance of Arabic hits and global rhythms.

Seattle International Film Festival: Coexistence, My Ass!
2025-05-25 11:30 - 13:30 | SIFF Cinema Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave N,, Seattle, WA, 98109, United States
Want a discount on your ticket? Use code ARABISH51 for $3 when purchasing tickets!
Comedy about Israel and Palestine is a high-wire act and perhaps never more so than now, which is part of what makes this documentary about Israeli comedian Noam Shuster-Eliassi so riveting. With an Iranian-Jewish mother and an Ashkenazi Romanian father, Noam grew up in Neve Shalom/Wahat al Salam, an intentional community where Arab and Jewish families live together by choice, and where her left-wing parents moved the family in the early 1990s.
A committed activist for equal rights for Palestinians and Jews—as she explains, coexistence can only exist between equals—she studied International Relations at Brandeis before taking a job at the United Nations. When she was invited by Harvard to work on a peace project, she chose to develop her one-woman show, “Coexistence, My Ass!” Shooting on the film began in 2020 and tracks the show’s progress through COVID and Noam’s growing fame, as well as Noam’s own navigation of the attacks on October 7th, their impact on her friends and family, and the subsequent war on Gaza.
Consistent through it all is Noam’s clear-eyed insight—sometimes funny, sometimes deadly serious, sometimes both at the same time. Winner of the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Freedom of Expression.

Seattle Folklife Festival: Palestine Folk Arts Showcase
2025-05-25 16:10 - 17:00 | Seattle Center – Fisher Pavilion, 305 Harrison St, Seattle, WA, 98109, United States
Join us at the Palestine Folk Arts Showcase at Folklife Festival on Sunday May 25! There will be live music with House of Tarab, tarwida performed by @halasalehtatreez, poetry by @tariq_raouf and Giovanna Khoury, and a dabke tutorial and group dance led by @seattledabke !
It’s free—bring your family and celebrate Palestine loud and proud so all of Folklife can hear ❤️🇵🇸

Free Film Screening: Israelism
2025-05-25 19:00 - 21:00 | Vashon Theater, 17723 Vashon Highway SW, Vashon, WA, 98070
Two young American Jews travel to Israel seeking a deeper understanding of the country they were raised to love. What they encounter profoundly impacts them, leading them to join a growing movement to redefine their community’s relationship with Israel in this challenging and emotional journey. Join us for the free screening of this film.
About the film
Two young American Jews – Simone Zimmerman and Eitan – are raised to defend the state of Israel at all costs. Eitan joins the Israeli military. Simone supports Israel on ‘the other battlefield:’ America’s college campuses. When they witness Israel‘s mistreatment of the Palestinian people with their own eyes, they are horrified and heartbroken.
They join the movement of young American Jews battling the old guard over Israel’s centrality in American Judaism, and demanding freedom for the Palestinian people. Their stories reveal a generational divide in the American Jewish community as more young Jews question the narratives their synagogues and Hebrew school teachers fed them as children.
The film also features voices like Jacqui, a Jewish educator who says “Judaism is Israel and Israel is Judaism”, and former Anti-Defamation League President Abe Foxman, who claims voices like Simone and Eitan’s represent a small minority. Thought leaders like Peter Beinart, Jeremy Ben-Ami, Noura Erakat, Cornel West, and Noam Chomsky also weigh in.
Directed by two first-time Jewish filmmakers who share a similar story to the film’s protagonists, Israelism is produced by Peabody-winner and 4-time Emmy-nominee Daniel J. Chalfen (Loudmouth, Boycott), executive produced by two-time Emmy-winner Brian A. Kates (Marvelous Ms. Maisel, Succession) and edited by Emmy-winner Tony Hale (The Story of Plastic), Israelism uniquely explores how Jewish attitudes towards Israel are changing dramatically, with massive consequences for the region and for Judaism itself.

Amna's Supper Club: June
2025-05-26 18:00 - 20:00 | Register for Location
Amna’s was born from memories of long dinners with family and friends during Beirut summers, where everyone left the table feeling full in every sense of the word. It is named after my two grandmothers, one an incredible cook and the other with the gift of always bringing people together.
Wanting to build meaningful community, I started hosting gatherings where people could find comfort in others and feel supported. These gatherings turned into monthly supper clubs where guests get to enjoy a multi-course Arab meal and create genuine connections.
Whether you’re craving food from home, curious to try a new cuisine, or simply looking to meet more incredible people – we can’t wait to welcome you!
#supperclub #seattlesupperclub #arabhospitality#middleeasterncuisine #seattleeats #seattleevents #seattle

Here are the details!
Mailing list sign up – https://amnas.myflodesk.com/sign-up-form
Tickets for May 17 Supper Club – https://form.jotform.com/251138505406148
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/chez.amnas/

Virtual Delegation: Balata Refugee Camp
2025-05-28 09:00 - 11:00 | Virtual
Join us for a virtual tour of Balata Refugee Camp, with Mariam Ajwa from the Yafa Cultural Center.
This virtual tour will be followed with a discussion and Q&A.
