Juliano Mer-Khamis

Juliano Mer-Khamis (; ; born Juliano Khamis; 29 May 19584 April 2011) was an Israeli–Palestinian actor, director, filmmaker, and political activist of Jewish and Palestinian Eastern Orthodox Christian parentage. On 4 April 2011, he was assassinated by a masked gunman in the city of Jenin, where he had established The Freedom Theatre.

Biography Juliano Khamis (later Mer-Khamis) was born in Nazareth, the son of Arna Mer-Khamis, a former Palmach combatant who had turned communist and joined the Maki party on experiencing disenchantment with Zionism after having participated in operations to drive Bedouin inhabitants out of parts of the Negev, His maternal grandfather was Gideon Mer, a scientist who pioneered the study of malaria during the British Mandate. His father abandoned their household when he was 10 years old. He attended school in Haifa. At the time of his death, Mer-Khamis was married to Jenny Nyman, a Finnish woman who did administrative and fundraising work for the Jenin theater. They had three sons. Khamis saw the birth of one son, but was killed while his wife was pregnant with their twins. She gave birth to the twins a month after his death, and moved to Haifa to raise them.

Service in the IDF Mer-Khamis served in the Israel Defense Forces as a combat soldier in the Paratroopers Brigade. He was a volunteer, since the army did not send him his draft papers, and he was eager to fight for his country. He adopted his maternal surname, Mer, dropping the surname Khamis which identified him as an Arab and had caused him problems among fellow Jews. He was eventually stationed in Jenin. According to him, one of his tasks was to carry a weapons bag and if someone was killed by accident, a weapon would be left on the corpse. Mer-Khamis said that while his squad was engaged in night-time firing practice they shot a shoulder missile at a donkey, accidentally killing a young girl seated on it. Mer-Khamis said that a load of explosives were left on the donkey to cover up the incident. He recalls beating up Palestinian protestors after they refused to disperse. When asked why, he recalled: "I wanted to be on one side. I wanted to be with somebody. Because I felt like nobody."

Theatre interest, travel and return On his release from the stockade, he enrolled in acting school, and discovered his abilities in that field. He made an appearance in The Little Drummer Girl, a film which deals with Palestinian terrorism. In 1987 he spent a year in the Philippines, consuming hallucinogenic mushrooms and talking to monkeys. It was there that he felt, according to a later declaration, that he had shaken off all identities. On his return, he lived as a beachcomber in Tel Aviv. He protested against Israel's response to the First Intifada by stripping himself and walking about covered in fake blood. Mishmish Or, an Israeli Jew of Turkish paternal and Egyptian maternal descent, picked him up off the sidewalks and gave him shelter. The two would eventually have a daughter together, Milay. In the meantime his mother Arna set up a children's center to teach over 1500 children in the Jenin camp and asked her son to join her there to teach drama therapy.

Mer-Khamis was married to Jenny Nyman, a Finnish activist he met in Haifa in May 2006. They had a son, Jay, and were expecting the birth of twins at the time of his death.

The theater he founded thrives, under the general management of Swedish-Israeli Jonathan Stanczyk, with actor Nabil al-Raee as artistic director.

In 2002, Mer-Khamis was nominated for the Ophir Award for Best Actor for his role in Kedma.

Assassination On 4 April 2011, Mer-Khamis was shot by masked gunmen while leaving the theater he had founded in Jenin. He had just started to drive away in his Citroën, with his baby son Jay on his lap, when a masked gunman emerged from a nearby alley and asked him to stop. The babysitter with them advised him to drive on, but he stopped, and was shot five times. He was rushed to the Jenin Hospital, where he was pronounced dead after his arrival.

In an interview in 2008, Mer-Khamis had foreseen the circumstances of his murder, predicting jokingly that he would be killed by a "fucked-up Palestinian" for "corrupting the youth of Islam". On 19 April 2011, Adnan Dameery, spokesperson for the Palestinian National Security Forces, reported DNA tests had exonerated the only detained suspect and that the murderer was still at large.

Filmography Year Film Role Notes 1984 The Little Drummer Girl Julio 1985 Not Quite Paradise Hassan, Terrorist 1985 Za'am V'Tehilah Edy "The Butcher" 1985 Bar 51 Thomas 1986 Esther Haman 1987 Wedding in Galilee (Urs al-Jalil) Officer 1989 Berlin-Yerushalaim Menahme 1993 Sipurei Tel-Aviv (Tel Aviv Stories) Jeno 1993 Zohar Morris 1993 Deadly Heroes Ramon 1994 Nothing to Lose Antonio Valdez 1994 Under the Domim Tree (Etz Hadomim Tafus) Ariel 1994 Yom Yom Jules 1995 Night Terrors Mahmoud (as Juliano Mer) 1997 Overture 1812 2000 The Last Patrol Jesus Carrera 2000 Kippur The Captain 2002 Kedma Moussa 2003 Arna's Children Himself Won FIPRESCI Prize 2004 God's Sandbox (Tahara) Nagim Nominated for Best Actor 2008 Salt of this Sea Hiking Leader Palestinian submission for Oscar in "Best Foreign Language Film" category 2009 Hadutha Saghira Israeli Soldier 2010 Miral Sheikh Saabah

Television and video Year Title Role Notes 1995 Hostages Ali Series 1992 Sweating Bullets Melito Series – played in "Don't Say Nothing Bad About My Baby" episode 1995 The Revolutionary Centurion Video 1996 The Revolutionary II Centurion Video 1998 Florentine Remi Series 2001 1000 Calories Eitan Katz TV movie 2006 Dijihad! Omar TV movie