Change Your Image
sulaco-11
Reviews
Gaza Strip (2002)
Don't take this for a balanced or complete portrayal
The one thing this movie demonstrates beyond a shadow of a doubt is that Gaza is an excruciating place in which to live. But this movie should not be taken as a balanced or complete assessment of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Israelis have no representative in this film, and they remain faceless the whole time. That's okay...it's clear the film isn't meant to show both sides. Clearly the images in this film will arouse sympathy. But this film is as notable for what it omits as it is for what it shows.
There is firing through the whole movie, although it is unclear who is firing at whom or why. The assumption is that it is the Israelis, firing for no particularly good reason, or because they are simply cruel. A child is blown up by a booby trap he finds after crawling through the border fence. The assumption is that it the Israelis left it, but couldn't it have just as easily been left by a Palestinian militant? A squalid Palestinian emergency room fills with male victims. Were they civilians callously gunned down by the Israelis? Or were they combatants firing on Israelis, or maybe even just victims of an innocent car crash? And how come they weren't taken to an Israeli hospital, which in spite of the violence remain available to Palestinians, are often closer than Palestinian hospitals and always offer superior care? Dozens of Palestinians wind up in the hospital with strange symptoms after being exposed to what the Israeli troops say is tear gas. The assumption is that it was poison gas, but if that was true, wouldn't all the victims die? An elderly Palestinian woman relates how Israeli troops tried to run her over with a bulldozer, although apparently she isn't so elderly that she can't outrun a bulldozer.
What I find the most fascinating about this film is the window it opens onto the Palestinian mind. There is no laughter, no hope, no love of life, no aspiration to build something better. It's almost as if they can imagine no other way to live. I was left wanting to ask so many questions of the Palestinians on the screen. I would ask how much responsibility for their misery would they assign to, say, Arafat, who walked away from a dream offer that would have given the Palestinians a state in 2000, and whose widow lives in Parisian luxury on millions in foreign aid that was meant to improve the Palestinians' quality of life. I would ask how much they blame Barak, who they mock even though he offered peace, or the U.S., whose then-President Clinton convinced Barak to put the offer on the table. To what extent do they blame other Muslim nations, who voice solidarity but refuse to accept them as refugees, and offer little humanitarian help? How much do they blame Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian militant groups, who fire at Israeli civilians and soldiers from behind Palestinian human shields? I would ask them if they believe the Israelis have a right to protect their children, and if they think they have the right to, for example, close a road or build a wall to do so. I would ask what, exactly, is preventing them from having their own state. Why haven't they built anything better for themselves, and is that Israel's fault, too? To the boy at the beginning of the film who chooses weapons over food, I would ask if it would be Israel's fault if he starved. And to the Red Cross representative who at the end of the film helpfully points out that Israel's settlements are illegal under the Geneva Convention, I would ask what the Geneva Convention has to say about the targeting of innocent noncombatants, as has become the hallmark of Palestinians' many violent advocates.
Clearly this movie begs many more questions than it answers.
Some of these questions, perhaps, can be answered by the short film Pallywood. (http://www.seconddraft.org/cur_invest.php) It is this film's ideal companion piece.