Ibtisam Mara'ana

Ibtisam Mara'ana-Menuhin (Arabic: ابتسام مراعنة منوحين, Hebrew: אִבְּתִיסָאם מַרְאַעְנֶּה־מְנוֹחִין) is an Israeli Arab politician, film director, and producer. She was a member of the Knesset for the Labor Party from 2021 to 2022. Upon her election, she made history as the first Knesset member in a mixed Jewish-Muslim relationship. Mara'ana was not reelected in the 2022 election. Ibtisam Mara'ana was born in 1975 in Fureidis, a Muslim Arab village in northern Israel. She attended film school at Givat Haviva. In 2000 she initiated a film and television program at her former high school in Fureidis. In June 2014, Mara'ana married Boaz Menuhin, a Jewish Israeli man. The couple has a daughter. The marriage was sealed in Tel Aviv in a non-religious ceremony, and is therefore not officially recognised in Israel. In 2003, Mara'ana founded Ibtisam Films to produce documentaries that investigate the borders and boundaries of Palestinian and Israeli society, with a focus on women and minorities. Her work explores gender, class, racism, and collective and individual identity. Her films show the plight of Arab-Palestinians living as a minority within Israel, while, at the same time, critique deep-rooted practices within Arab-Palestinian society. Her work has been screened on television and at festivals worldwide. Mara'ana teaches at various educational institutions, including the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem. As a feminist activist, she appears at universities and conferences as a public speaker, and has published numerous articles in Israeli newspapers. In 2009, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz named Mara'ana as one of the 10 most influential women in Israel. In 2011 Druze-Israeli Jamila "Maya" Fares, the sister of Angelina Fares, the subject of Mara'ana's documentary Lady Kul El Arab, was murdered in an honour killing. In response to the murder, Mara'ana created a foundation to support Arab women fleeing gender-based violence in Israel. Prior to the 2009 Knesset elections Mara'ana was placed twelfth on the Meretz list. However, she withdrew her candidacy shortly before the elections after Meretz expressed support for Operation Cast Lead in Gaza. In January 2021, Mara'ana ran in the Israeli Labor Party primaries, and placed seventh on the party's list for the March 2021 elections.