Message in a bottle

 

Hoda’s story

Filmaker: Johan Eriksson

Date published: 12th May 2011

Source: Al Jazeera English

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We follow a Palestinian girl’s gradual rehabilitation after she was shot and blinded in Gaza.

Link to the documentary “Hoda’s story”

In March 2003, 12-year-old Hoda Darwish was sitting at her desk in a UN elementary school in Khan Younis on the Gaza Strip when an Israeli high-velocity bullet was fired through her classroom window. It hit Hoda in the head. The doctors at the hospital said that she would never awaken from her coma.

But after two weeks she started to recover. When she woke up she slowly discovered that her life would never be the same again – she had lost her sight.

This poignant film looks at Hoda’s gradual mental and physical rehabilitation at the Rehabilitation Centre in Gaza, as she copes with the daily pain and suffering of her injury and how she rebuilds her confidence, all in a place full of fear and tragedy.

To shoot an elephant

Source : To Shoot An Elephant

To download click here.

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Sinopsis

 

“…afterwards, of course, there were endless discussions about the shooting of the elephant. The owner was furious, but he was only an Indian and could do nothing. Besides, legally I had done the right thing, for a mad elephant has to be killed, like a mad dog, if it’s owner fails to control it”.

George Orwell defined a way of witnessing Asia that still remains valid. “To shoot an elephant” is an eye witness account from The Gaza Strip. December 27th, 2008, Operation Cast Lead. 21 days shooting elephants. Urgent, insomniac, dirty, shuddering images from the only foreigners who decided and managed to stay embedded inside Gaza strip ambulances, with Palestinian civilians.

George Orwell: “Shooting an elephant” was originally published in New Writing in 1948.

Context

 

Gaza Strip has been under siege since June 2007, when Israel declared it an “enemy entity”. A group of international activists organized a siege-breaking movement, the Free Gaza movement. Thanks to their efforts, and despite the Israeli ban on foreign correspondents and humanitarian aid workers to cover and witness operation “Cast Lead” on the ground, a group of international volunteers: self organised members of the International Solidarity Movement were present in Gaza when the bombing started on December, 27th 2009. Together with two international correspondents from Al Jazeera International (Ayman Mohyeldin and Sherine Tadros), they were the only foreigners who managed to write, film and report for several radio stations what was happening inside the besieged Palestinian strip.

Were they journalists? Were they activists? Who cares!. They became witnesses. Being a journalist or being whatsoever depends on how you feel. It is an ethical responsibility that you manage to share with a wider audience what you and those who are around you are going through. It will be the result of your work that will lead you to a professional career as a journalist or not, rather than pre-assumptions and labels. Make them know. Make those who you want to: listen and be aware of what you are aware of. That is a journalist. Having a card, with “press” written on it, or getting a regular salary is not necessary to be a witness with a camera or a pen. Forget about neutrality. Forget about objectivity. We are not Palestinians. We are not Israelis. We are not impartial. We only try to be honest and report what we see and what we know. I am a journalist. If somebody listens, I am a journalist. In Gaza´s case, no “official journalists” were authorized to enter Gaza (apart from those who were already inside) so we became witnesses. With a whole set of responsibilities as regarding to it.

I have always understood journalism as “a hand turning the lights on inside the dark room”. A journalist is a curious person, an unpleasant interrogator, a rebel camera and a pen making those in power feel uncomfortable. And that is the concept of my work in Gaza: To fulfil a duty in the most narrated conflict on earth, where the story of the siege and the collective punishment that is being imposed by Israel on the whole population of the territory in retaliation for rockets sent by Hamas will never be told with enough accuracy. For this it has to be lived. I sneaked inside Gaza despite Israeli attempts not to allow us to enter and I was “politely” asked to leave by those in power in Gaza. That is my idea of journalism. Every government on earth should feel nervous about somebody going around with a camera or a pen ready to publish what he or she manages to understand. For the sake of information, one of the biggest pillars of democracy.

This is an embedded film. We decided to be “embedded within the ambulances” opening an imaginary dialogue with those journalists who embed themselves within armies. Everyone is free to choose the side where they want to report from. But decisions are often not unbiased. We decided that civilians working for the rescue of the injured would give us a far more honest perspective of the situation than those whose job is to shoot, to injure and to kill. We prefer medics rather than soldiers. We prefer the bravery of those unarmed rescuers than those with -also interesting, but morally rejectable experiences who enlist to kill. It is a matter of focus. I am not interested in the fears, traumas and contradictions of those who have a choice: the choice of staying home and saying no to war.

Crew

 

Directors: Alberto Arce/ Mohammad Rujailah

Script: Alberto Arce/ Miquel Marti Freixas

Editing: Alberto Arce/ Miquel marti Freixas

Sound: Francesc Gosalves

Posproduction: Jorge Fernández Mayoral

Co-production/distribution: Eguzki Bideoak.

Translation: Mohammad Rujailah/ Alberto Arce

Design Team: Mr. Brown and Mabrilan

Duration:112´

The issue of Israeli settlements

Date published: Sunday 20th September 2009

Source: Al Jazeera English

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Despite a wave of protests and talks on the issue, Israeli settlement construction continues.

George Mitchell, the US envoy to the Middle East, met Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, during his latest tour of the region and although the meeting was described as “good”  by the prime minister’s office, there was no deal on the thorny issue of settlements.

The US wants Israel to temporarily halt its expansion into Palestinian land, especially in the occupied West Bank.

Mitchell and Netanyahu are set to meet again and the special envoy wants to secure an agreement ahead of possible three-way talks between Netanyahu, Barack Obama, the US president, and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president.

So, where does that leave Obama’s peace initiative? And is the US willing to force its ally to compromise?

Inside Story, with presenter Shiulie Gosh, discusses with guests Raanan Gissen, a former senior advisor to Ariel Sharon, Michael Hudson, a professor of International Relations at Georgetown University, and Azzam Tamimi, the director of the Institute of Islamic Political Thought.

Gaza we are coming

Date published: 11th September 2009

Source: Aljazeera English

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In August 2008, two wooden Greek ships laden with 44 activists from 17 different countries managed something no other vessel had in 41 years and broke the marine blockade that Israel has unilaterally imposed in Gaza, in contravention of  international law.

The mission was the brainchild of the Free Gaza Movement, founded in 2006, who realised that the only realistic way of breaking through the blockade was via the sea.

However the project was fraught with delays and risks from the outset and in the words of Paul Larudee from the group: “This project died a thousand deaths and every time it was about to die someone, somebody new, stepped forward to save the project.”

The last such person was Vangelis Pissias, a Greek who was touched by the Palestinian issue during his youth in Egypt and provided the boats for the group to undertake the mission to Gaza.

All involved were aware of the perilous nature of the mission. Previous attempts have been thwarted and boats even exploded. Activists have also been found dead in suspicious circumstances.

It explores the motives of those involved including the ordinary Greeks who volunteered to participate in this dangerous but successful operation.

It also recounts how the boats were built secretly in Greek shipyards, the logistics involved, the attempts to thwart the mission and why it was laden with such historical importance and pressure to succeed.

PART 1

PART 2

PART 3

PART 4

Difficult Ramadan in Gaza

Date published: 4th September 2009

Source: Al Jazeera English

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For the last eight months, Abu Hassan and his family have been living in a refugee camp after their home was destroyed during Israel’s war on Gaza.

Since the war ended in early January, life has been a daily struggle for many families like Abu Hassan’s – their situation now made even worse during the month of Ramadan.

Al Jazeera’s Ayman Mohyeldin visited one such camp where even the simple act of breaking fast has become a daunting task for hundreds of refugees.

Russell Tribunal on Palestine – May this tribunal prevent the crime of silence

Date published: 4th March 2009

Source: Russell Tribunal Palestine

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The recent war waged by the Israeli government and the Israeli army on the Gaza strip, already under a blockade, underlines the particular responsibility of the United States and of the European Union in the perpetuation of the injustice done to the Palestinian people, deprived of its fundamental rights.

It is important to mobilize the international public opinion so that the United Nations and Member States adopt the necessary measures to end the impunity of the Israeli State, and to reach a just and durable solution to this conflict.

Following an appeal from Ken Coates, Nurit Peled, and Leila Shahid, and with the support of over a hundred well-known international personalities, it has been decided to organise a Russell Tribunal on Palestine.

Based on the Opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued on the 9th of July 2004 and on the relevant resolutions of the United Nations Organisation, this Russell Tribunal on Palestine is a civic initiative promoting international law as the core element of the Israeli-Palestinian issue.

Further than Israel’s responsibility, it aims to demonstrate the complicity of Third States and International Organisations which, through their passivity or active support, allow Israel to violate the rights of the Palestinian People, and let this situation be continued and aggravated.

The next step will then be to establish how this complicity results in international responsibilities.

Through a decentralised functioning, the organisation of public sessions and other public events, the organisation of a Russell Tribunal on Palestine is designed as a large communication event, with widespread media coverage over the tribunal and its outcomes. Indeed, the Russell Tribunal on Palestine having no official mandate, its impact rests on its ability to mobilise public opinion, so that the latter puts pressure on governments to obtain that they change their policies in the ways that are necessary to reach a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.

Negotiations exclude Hamas

Date published: 27 August 2009

Source: Al Jazeera English

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Barack Obama, the US president, is attempting to seal an Arab-Israeli peace deal that has eluded the region for more than six decades.

In the fourth of the series, Al Jazeera’s Ayman Mohyeldin looks at the consequences of a peace plan without the involvement of Hamas.

Gaza schools reopen amid problems

Date published: 23 August 2009

Source: Al Jazeera English
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Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip have returned to school after their summer break, with a shortage of school supplies and overcrowded classrooms posing a threat to the quality of their education.

Nearly 300 schools and nursery schools were heavily damaged during Israel’s assault on the territory last winter and several were completely destroyed.

Because of Israel’s siege of the enclave, enough supplies of stationary and other school equipment is not available in Gaza and neither is necessary construction material to repair the damaged schools.

Al Jazeera’s correspondent Ayman Mohyeldin said children in the Omar Khatab school were attending classes in shifts when he visited on Sunday, the first day of the school year.

“Just adjacent to this school is a school which was destroyed by Israel’s war. Many of the students there have come to this school. What that creates is a sense of overcrowdness,” he said.

“All of the glass at the school is still pretty much bombed out and that will pose a serious problem for the school come winter time if they don’t get in the supply of that material.

“Officials are concerned that the quality of education will decline because of supplies and construction materials.

Uniform exemption

Officials of Gaza’s Hamas government have decided to exempt students from having to wear school uniforms.

Umm Hisham, a Palestinian woman in Gaza, told Al Jazeera: “I have seven children. How can I afford this very expensive uniform?

Nearly 300 schools and nursery schools were destroyed in Israel’s war on Gaza [EPA]
“Besides, it is Ramadan now, and Eid is coming after, and there are many commitments for all these occasions.

“It is not only me, all people here in Gaza suffer.”

Despite the difficulties, Muhammad Askol, the education minister in the Hamas government, was optimistic.

“Facing obstacles and complications is not new for the Palestinian society in Gaza,” he told Al Jazeera.

“We have become used to handling the siege. Last year, we started the new academic year with only 60 per cent of the teachers, but this year we are starting with full capacity.

“I believe we now have the minimum level of capabilities that enable us to go on.”

According to a United Nations investigation, four schools that were being used as registered emergency shelters were bombed or fired at during Israel’s 21-day military operation.

Twelve teachers and 164 students were killed during the same period.

Gaza gunbattle leaves several dead

Date published: 15th August 2009

Source: Al Jazeera English

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Fighting between Hamas forces and al-Jamaa al-Salafiya al-Jihadya in Palestine has left at least 16 people dead, after a Sheikh called for the Gaza Strip to be ruled by Sharia (Islamic law).

Al Jazeera’s Ayman Mohyeldin reports.