The American Association for Palestinian Equal Rights and Sacramento State’s Peace and Conflict International hosted its first Palestine Film Festival on Saturday and Sunday at Sacramento State.

The festival took place in the University Union Ballroom, offering a range of films that portrayed the lives and struggles Palestinians face today in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip – located in Israel.

Established in 2005, the American Association for Palestinian Equal Rights is a nonprofit organization that has grown in the years and hopes to educate Americans about Palestine and lobby for an equitable U.S. policy toward Palestine, said Laura Arns, an alumna of Sac State and member of the American Association for Palestinian Equal Rights.

“The Palestine Film Festival is an event to showcase films that will help educate Americans all over the United States about the situation in Palestine and the need for a fair U.S. policy toward Palestine that will advance freedom and equality for the Palestinian people,” Arns said.

While more than 70 people attended the Palestinian film festival over the weekend, Arns said she was expecting a larger student population. She said although it was great to see people ranging from different professions and backgrounds, she hoped for students to become more active in the fight for Palestinian freedom.

“I was hoping for more students to attend the film festival,” Arns said. “Being a graduate from Sac State, I want students here to raise awareness and provide a voice for the Palestinians.”

“Something to Prove – from Gaza to the U.S.A.” opened the festival as it told a story about boys on their way to the United States for the first time from Gaza.

Not only did the film festival create an educational atmosphere for the audience, but also provided ways for the community to get involved by donating to the organization. The American Association for Palestinian Equal Rights’ spring ad campaign raised money for advertisement on billboards to spread the word.

Although this was the first Palestine Film Festival hosted by the nonprofit, Arns said the organization plans to showcase the festival annually to also help the community to become more active in the fight to free the Palestinians.

Barbara Candy, member of the Sacramento to Bethlehem Sister City organization, works with people to understand the issues Palestinians are facing and said she hopes Americans will become more aware and fight for their rights.

“Many Americans are uneducated about Israel and how their people are trying to keep Palestinians from their freedoms,” Candy said.

While people from the Sacramento and Sac State community filled the Palestine Film Festival, high school student Hakam Shalubi traveled from John F. Kennedy High School in Southern California to attend the film festival.

Shalubi, a junior in high school and founder of his high school club End the Occupation, is a strong believer in the fight to end the battle between Israel and Palestine.

When he traveled to Palestine, Shalubi witnessed firsthand the struggles his country is facing.

Shalubi created End the Occupation, a campus club he established to raise money for victims of war. He sends what the club has earned to the Gaza fund to help his country fight for its freedom.

“I think the film festival is good example of how Palestinians are living,” Shalubi said. “Hopefully these kinds of events will raise more awareness and Americans will become more involved to end the fight.”