In Hebron’s hyper-militarized Old City, a Palestinian cinema opens its doors
Palestinian residents and activists gather for a screening of ‘Coexistence my Ass!’ in late December 2025
Basel Adra reports in +972 on 2 February 2026:
“The cinema project has long been a dream for popular resistance activists in the Old City of Hebron. Now it is finally seeing the light.”
With these words, Issa Amro proclaimed the opening of Ahmad Film House in early December. Amro, co-founder of the cinema and of Youth Against Settlements (YAS) — a non-violent Palestinian rights movement based in Hebron — was addressing a crowd of dozens of Palestinians as well as Israeli and international activists packed into a small gray room lined with rows of plastic chairs.
The cinema is named after Ahmad Amro, Issa’s brother, a human rights defender and YAS volunteer who died in 2023 from a blood clot after years of complications from diabetes. To inaugurate the space on the second anniversary of his death, Amro screened “Unknown Soldiers,” a series of eight short films by young first-time Palestinian directors –– one of them Ahmad himself –– who document life under occupation and the non-violent forms of resistance they practice.
“This project had always been very important to [Ahmad], but he passed away before its completion,” Amro told +972. “So we decided to name the cinema after him.”