Gaza Strip
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Movie Reviews of Gaza Strip
Movie Review: Watch this DVD and pass it around!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
This documentary was filmed in Gaza Strip and details the daily lives of Palestinians living in occupation. The most horrifying scenes for me are when Palestinians get seriously wounded and injured and are taken to a hospital and there is no medical equipment! This is a heart wrenching - must see documentary. I'm neither a Palestinian nor Muslim but when I see another human being living in desolate poverty and violence, and it is encouraged and brought on by our government, I feel horribly upset.
Even me, for the last couple of years I read our newspapers, I would read that today 10 Israelis died in a suicide bombing and I would say damn, why is there all that fighting over there? Thanks to religion fanatics, unfettered aid and our government ignoring the Palestinians, we are never shown the Palestinian struggle. Most Americans don't realize this because daily our media leads us to believe that Palestinians are simply terrorists. I urge you - please refer to www.bbc.com or www.guardian.co.uk or even www.cbc.ca for real news. Many people think Fox news is biased - that is the tip of the iceberg. CNN, NBC, Time magazine, I could go on and on about how one-sided, agenda pushing and hate filled the media and government is.
http://www.ifamericansknew.com/ is a great site about the Israel-Palestinian conflict. If this DVD is too expensive for you - borrow it from the library, buy it used or go here:
Http://www.littleredbutton.com/gaza At his website, you can ask PBS to play this movie for you.
Every American should see this movie and see that their tax dollars are being spent on illegal and immoral weapons of oppression. Whether a person is Muslim, Jew or anything in between, it is in everyone's interest to stop the hatred, open your eyes and see this documentary. I am ashamed that our government and media in this day and age can turn a blind eye to what is going on. As long as people continue to be narrow-minded in thinking and say well these people are Muslims, we are Jews or vice versa, there will not be peace. I encourage everyone to call or e-mail your local libraries and Universities and tell them to order copies of this DVD to distribute to everyone. It's time we put a stop to this brutal apartheid regime and start heading towards peace and democracy for both countries.
Movie Review: Understanding Hopelessness
Summary: 5 Stars
This documentary is a painful but worthwhile look at what is going on in gaza, from a perspective which the mainstream media is very careful to avoid. It doesn't really have a political message per se, instead it just puts a face on the people and the hardship they are suffering under israeli occupation. As it turns out, the palestinians are indeed human after all.
I have always wondered how a person could want to be a suicide bomber, and assumed that religious fanatacism was the key ingredient, since the act seems so senseless and ugly. Having watched this film, now I think perhaps simple despair, and a desire for revenge, brought on by the policies of the Israeli government (wreaking death and destruction), is what really enables a person to make such a terrible decision. Its sad that the very thing which supposedly is intended to stop terrorism only ends up breeding more, a lesson I am afraid we americans are now going to have to learn the hard way with Iraq.
I was once far more sympathetic to the Israeli side of the struggle, but as they became ever more brutally heavy-handed and bullying in there actions towards the palestinians I think that the leadership of Israel now has just as much blood on their hands as the 'terrorists' do. I don't know what it will take for us in the US to stop our policy of blind support for Israel, a change of president perhaps? Probably not enough, but a good start anyway.
The saddest part of the whole mess is that the majority of people both israeli and palestinian want peace, and could negotiate a reasonable compromise and implement it, given a chance. But the leadership of both sides, motivated by a mixture of religious extremism and greed, won't allow this to happen. Regardless of Sharon's statements to the contrary, the ball is in Israel's court, it has been for a long time, and the obvious right thing to do is to dismantle all the settlements, right now. That action would alleviate much of israel's security problem, as well as relieving a lot of palestinian suffering. And it would lay the foundation for real peace.
Perhaps this film will open some eyes to what is going on there, change is needed, it should be pretty obvious where the road they are on now leads.
Movie Review: Pure Documentary Labeled as "Propaganda"
Summary: 5 Stars
Instead of keeping the lid of silence on Palestinian civilian voices from the Gaza Strip, this film lets their side of the story be heard. For once we get to have a look inside Gaza at what Palestinian men, women, and children endure under Israeli military occupation.This film is not just another piece of mindless Fox News pap that covers over the real human catastrophe caused by Israel's 35-year policy of military occupation in the West Bank and Gaza. In this documentary, we actually get to see unfiltered reality of life under occupation instead of faceless propaganda from pro-occupation TV pundits and appologists for Israel's violations of international law and UN resolutions. Because it provides a rare and insightful view of this conflict, this documentary continues to be shown by student groups at all the top colleges and universities in the United States.
About "Propaganda" -- Let's review!
Propaganda is: "Any organization or plan for spreading a particular doctrine or a system of principles." - Websters
This documentary doesn't fit that description. This film shows a raw and varied picture of Palestinians -- it's not 100% complimentary, it shows lots of different people with very different views. It may be bleak, it may be hard to swallow, but this documentary looks a lot more like a reflection of real hardship and bitter life than a "doctrine" or "system of principles."
Now, real "propaganda" is when you define all Palestinians as "terrorists" and all Israelis as "innocent." Real "propaganda" is when civilian refugee camps are defined as "havens ... for terrorism" and "training grounds." Real "propaganda" is when a film that shows the actual suffering of civilians is defined as "anti-semitic" as long as their suffering happens at the hands of Israelis. That is real "doctrine," and a real "system of principles" that is, in fact, aimed at excusing an illegal occupation and Israeli state terrorism against Palestinians.
And "Propaganda" is when you tell students what information they can and can't see for their own education. That's "propaganda" -- so let's get it straight and not conveniently forget what words mean.
Movie Review: Great film draws fire
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a really excellent documentary -- probably the best one I have seen about the Palestinian situation. It is full of the kind of personal detail and texture that you will never see in news reports, and it is also brutally honest. That said, it is a verite documentary about the Palestinians in Gaza -- those expecting to hear the Israeli settlers tell their story will be unhappy. On the other hand, the film never makes any pretense of setting forth the Israeli position, or of covering them at all. Let's repeat -- this is a film about the Palestinians in Gaza. And as such, it's a great document and a rare piece of filmmaking. If you feel like you don't know as much as you would like about the Palestinian perspective -- or just what life feels like in the Occupied Territories, then this is a film you should definitely see!Some reviewers here seem very uncomfortable with the film precisely because it shows the Palestinian perspective -- one guy keeps going on about the attack on Jenin refugee camp -- which happened one year after "Gaza Strip" was filmed -- and Jenin is in the West Bank, not the Gaza Strip. Also, it was Israeli foreign minister Shimon Perez who first called Jenin a "massacre"...
And the reviewer comment about Palestinians not loving their children seems a little bit racist.
If you go through all the reviews of this film you will see that it has received only two kinds of ratings: 5 stars or 1 star. All the 1 star reviews are written by people who seem to have a direct connection with the Israeli position in this conflict, and are trying to hurt the films reputation by spreading false rumors about it (see the filmmaker James Longley's review) or by bringing up subjects that in no way relate to the film itself. I would guess many of them haven't seen the film they are reviewing...
Bottom line -- this is an excellent documentary -- but it is also subjective, filmed from the point of view of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. As a result, it gives much deeper picture of this life than I have ever seen portrayed before.
Movie Review: "In the end, I am nothing."
Summary: 5 Stars
The Gaza Strip is 28 miles long and 4 miles wide. In this geographical area, live 1.2 million Palestinians. Filmmaker James Longley doesn't dwell on the "who started what" aspect of the Israeli-Palestinian question--instead the focus is to show glimpses of life in the Gaza Strip. And the scenes in the film are grim. The documentary conveys chaos, unrelenting poverty, and hopelessness in each frame The film begins in the spring of 2001, and a great deal of the footage focuses on Mohammed, a 13 year-old boy who sells newspapers to help support his family. He left school at the seasoned age of 8. Mohammed discusses many of the friends he had who are now dead, and he also admits that he likes to throw stones "to defend the homeland."
Street scenes include gunfire which sends schoolchildren scattering, but some children are so inured to it, they seem merely curious. Some children express a desire to grow up and become martyrs. In one scene, the appearance of an Israeli vehicle shows men smashing the nearest boulder (and there's plenty due to the piles of rubble laying all over the place), and then loading sling-type devices with stones to fling at the Israelis. In amongst the men, there are younger boys who clearly feel the excitement at hand.
Other scenes show beaches heavy with traffic--vehicles stuck in the sand, and a long line of pedestrians who are forced to use the beach after the roads are closed. Palestinians express their frustration and the belief that "the only left is to push us into the sea." Other scenes show hospitals chaotic with casualities. One scene in particular is extremely gruesome. Officials from Doctors without Borders are interviewed in the film, and DVD extras include commentary from the director, a map of the Gaza Strip, and a slideshow. The saddest element to the film remains the children who nurse strong political opinions and exhibit the pitiful maturity that comes with daily violence and poverty. For anyone the slightest bit interested in Palestine, I recommend this haunting documentary--displacedhuman