“Shoot the People”: Meet Misan Harriman, Celebrated Photographer & Outspoken Advocate for Palestine

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: We flip now to the U.Okay., the place the criminalization of Palestine-related activism is on the rise. On Monday, a British court docket of appeals upheld the federal government’s ban on Palestine Action as a terrorist group over inflicting, quote, “serious damage to property.” Palestine Action has carried out direct motion protests at Israeli-linked army and industrial websites within the U.Okay. because it was shaped in 2020. Last week, a choose sentenced 4 Palestine Action activists as terrorists for his or her involvement in a protest at a manufacturing unit owned by Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons producer.

But it’s not simply the federal government and the courts which can be making a local weather of concern round talking up about Palestinian rights. The newest high-profile goal of right-wing media shops is British photographer and activist Misan Harriman, an outspoken advocate of Palestinian rights, who’s now being accused of selling antisemitism. Harriman has over half 1,000,000 followers on social media. His images of the Black Lives Matter motion went viral, and he grew to become the primary Black photographer to shoot the duvet of British Vogue. He’s additionally extensively documented pro-Palestine rallies within the U.Okay., highlighting examples of Jewish solidarity.

AMY GOODMAN: Over 100,000 folks have submitted complaints to the U.Okay.’s Independent Press Standards Organisation, following what many name a dishonest smear marketing campaign towards Harriman. An open letter in his help, signed by over 250 celeb actors, artists, activists, writers and lawmakers, claims the accusations towards him are solely with out basis or reality.

Former Israeli negotiator Daniel Levy described the marketing campaign as, quote, “a preposterous ad hominem attack, spuriously attempting to cast an anti-racist British cultural icon as an enemy of the Jews.” Daniel Levy was a former peace negotiator underneath two Israeli prime ministers.

Well, there’s a brand new documentary about Misan Harriman, concerning the significance of protest and taking a political stand as an artist, directed by the Nigerian British filmmaker Andy Mundy-Castle. It’s known as Shoot the People. This is a teaser for the movie.

MISAN HARRIMAN: When I go searching what is going on immediately, it’s onerous to not really feel helpless.

UNIDENTIFIED: We shouldn’t deny that we’re in a extremely darkish second.

SISANDA ALUTA MBOLEKWA: I feel the revolution needs to be televised. I feel the revolution ought to at all times be documented.

MISAN HARRIMAN: My work is observing the human situation and making artwork that has goal.

MARTIN LUTHER KING III: The photographs shall be right here ceaselessly, bringing folks collectively to do one thing larger than themselves.

UNIDENTIFIED: That’s the ability of artwork, to say one other world is feasible, and we have now the ability to vary issues.

AMY GOODMAN: For extra, we’re joined right here in our New York studio by Misan Harriman. He’s additionally an Oscar-nominated filmmaker, a world ambassador for Save the Children UK and the board chair of London’s largest cultural middle, the South Bank Center. Shoot the People has simply opened in New York and Toronto this week, is distributed by Watermelon Pictures.

Misan Harriman, welcome to Democracy Now! It’s nice to have you ever in studio. I do know you’ll be having a Q&A on the Angelika tonight with Elliot Page.

MISAN HARRIMAN: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: Before we go into the movie and your unbelievable work through the years, are you able to discuss this repression of pro-Palestine activists, Jewish, Muslim, atheist, whoever they’re? And your footage of individuals are magnificent. The criminalizing particularly of Palestine Action?

MISAN HARRIMAN: Yes. I imply, you’ve seen the current, you understand, court docket of attraction information re. Palestine Action. And what’s the very first thing to say is it’s extraordinary that the jury of the case didn’t understand that they’d be terrorism prices once they have been deciding what their verdict could be. And I feel that’s the massive story in all of this, is how can a jury determine what it’s doing with out realizing what the fees shall be.

AMY GOODMAN: Explain precisely what you imply, as a result of for a world viewers, I don’t assume there may be as a lot — simply having flown in from the U.Okay. and Ireland yesterday — 

MISAN HARRIMAN: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: — data of Palestine Action and the way the British authorities has categorized them.

MISAN HARRIMAN: Yes. So, there have been appeals, however an important level at this stage of Palestine Action within the court docket case is {that a} jury of our friends determined the decision with out realizing what the ultimate cost could be. And that’s a unprecedented factor in any democracy in any a part of the world. And I hope there’ll be an attraction, in order that this may be retried. We will see. But I’ve by no means heard — and lots of students have spoken about this — of a jury deciding what a verdict shall be, after which the precise verdict has a distinct cost to what the jury was made to consider. And that’s a unprecedented factor.

I feel with Palestine Action, as a photographer, I’ve seen rabbis, imams, grandmothers, blind women and men, veterans be arrested, and I don’t consider {that a} 90-year-old great-grandmother is a transparent and current hazard to any nuclear-powered nation-state. And we’ve bought to a spot the place that is taking place in plain sight for all of us to see, which is why so many individuals are incensed by the quantity of arrests and the quantity that it’s costing the state, as a result of it prices cash to attempt folks and arrest folks en masse. And I don’t assume the help for Palestine Action goes to go away as a result of it’s been prescribed on this manner.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Absolutely. Well, let’s go to the documentary now, Shoot the People. This is a clip from proper after you attended the Oscars in Los Angeles in 2024, the place your quick movie, The After, was nominated for an Oscar within the Best Live Action Short Film class. As you’re driving to the ceremony, you cross a number of Palestine protests, and the stroll on the purple carpet is edited in a strong manner, with footage of bombs over Gaza. In this clip, you replicate on the query of fame and the accountability it brings to talk out.

MISAN HARRIMAN: I feel we dwell in an age now the place it’s all too simple to have all this energy and affect however actually stand for nothing. The veneer of what I believed the world was presupposed to be has clearly come off, and I’m seeing how a lot must be modified.

I understand that I’ve lived a privileged life, and that usually collides with my activism, and infrequently wonder if it’s attainable to inhabit each of those worlds. I might be, you understand, leaping from one movie and trend social gathering to the opposite. I’ve loads of, I assume, celeb pals that I might be hanging round with and simply flip my head away from the ache and inequality of the world.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: So, there you’re, Misan, within the documentary. Now, after all, you’ve chosen to not flip your head away, and also you’ve usually quoted one of the extraordinary musicians of the twentieth century, Nina Simone, as saying that “an artist’s duty, as far as I’m concerned, is to reflect the times.” So, when you might — when you might discuss that and the way you got interested within the work that you just did, and have become an activist on so many alternative points?

MISAN HARRIMAN: Well, I actually stand on the shoulders of the legends that got here earlier than me: Peter Magubane, the good South African photographer, and, being in New York City, Gordon Parks, who in some ways modified my life, and he additionally straddled activism and capturing for Life journal, Vogue journal himself.

I’m a toddler of empire. My dad and mom have been born into an occupied Nigeria. There mustn’t ever be youngsters of a lesser god. That is how I’ve been raised. There mustn’t ever be people of a lesser god. If I step outdoors of my home and I see a toddler bleeding out, I’m not going to ask what god that little one worships. I’m not going to ask the place that little one was born. I’m going to assist the kid. I consider we’ve bought to a spot the place even youngsters’s proper to dwell has grow to be debatable.

So, as a substitute of utilizing my voice and my artwork to maintain folks on islands of rage, I’m there to construct the bridges which were damaged by the very teams of those who have been supposed to guard us, our fourth property and our flesh pressers. And I genuinely consider that via artwork and tradition, we are able to see that the sum of all of our components is stronger than the highly effective few.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: And how have you ever seen — over the many years that you just’ve been an activist, what transformations have you ever seen within the U.Okay., specifically, which is the place you reside, by way of the growth or diminution of rights for various communities, LGBTQ — 

MISAN HARRIMAN: Yeah.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: — for, you understand, feminism — 

MISAN HARRIMAN: Yes.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: — Black lives?

MISAN HARRIMAN: Well, I, first off — all of it, Black lives, queer, trans, local weather. And the factor about Palestine is it brings all of it collectively, as a result of all of these teams I see at Palestine protests. The intersectionality of those actions has come collectively, as a result of the correct to self-determination of Palestine is deeply rooted by the identical ethical compass that folks have in different actions. The Jewish bloc, who I march with on a regular basis, are among the most extraordinary folks I’ve seen in these protests. I consider the central pillar of Judaism is altruism, eager about others, lifting others up. And they’ve grow to be brothers and sisters in arms with Muslim, Arab, Palestinian folks, all wanting towards the horizon to construct a future that our kids should inherit.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to do a Part 2 of this dialog and publish it on-line at democracynow.org. But on this final 30 seconds, discuss concerning the title of this documentary about you, Shoot the People.

MISAN HARRIMAN: Shoot the People is a play on phrases, clearly, of the true violence that Black and Brown our bodies are having to endure technology after technology, but in addition of the potential protect that may be a lens to bear witness, to say that we have been right here and we stood up towards tyranny collectively.

AMY GOODMAN: Misan Harriman, the Nigerian British photographer, social activist and Oscar-nominated filmmaker. A brand new documentary about him has opened this week in New York and in addition Toronto. It’s known as Shoot the People. Go to democracynow.org for Part 2 of our dialog.

That does it for our present. Coming up tomorrow, a Juneteenth particular with Clint Smith and Rhiannon Giddens.

I’m headed to Vermont. Today, I’ll be in Burlington, after which Brattleboro, St. Johnsbury and Montpelier for a documentary about Democracy Now! known as Steal This Story, Please! I’ll be with the director Carl Deal and my brother, Vermont journalist David Goodman. To see the theaters the place we’ll be — they’re opening for every week there — you’ll be able to go to democracynow.org. Looking ahead to seeing folks all through Vermont. And I’m so blissful to be dwelling with Nermeen Shaikh. Thanks a lot for becoming a member of us for an additional version of Democracy Now!