Israel and Palestine: Living with the Enemy
Duration: 16'55"
Producer / Reporter: Moshe Rosenveig
Amira Hass is an Israeli journalist living in the heart of the Palestinian occupied territories. Her mission - to tell Israelis the Palestinian side of the story. Many think she is a lunatic - others, a traitor for siding with Israel's enemy. But Amira's work embodies the belief that mutual understanding can bring reconciliation and peace.
Amira Hass is not afraid in Gaza. The Israeli soldiers she meets on patrol cannot understand her - even with their guns they are terrified. But Amira knows that while for Palestinians the soldiers represent the occupation, in her they see a human side - shopping, working, or driving around with friends. "I've no reason to be afraid," she says "because I'm unarmed." Amazingly, this Israeli woman has never been threatened or harassed.
Amira is a nomad. She spends her life in her car, crossing borders the Palestinians cannot in order to tell their story. At dawn one morning she at the Israeli checkpoint between Bethlehem and Jerusalem, thousands of Palestinians are queuing to cross into Israel to work. The soldiers are taking their time. Anyone without a full permit is turned back - although ironically they can cross freely a few meters from the checkpoint in full view of the soldiers. For Amira, the checkpoint is as ridiculous as it is sinister. "The absurdity at this checkpoint is indicative of how Israel controls the Palestinians. By controlling the Palestinian economy, you can control their politics."
Amira's left-wing newspaper Haaretz first posted her to Gaza in 1992: "I got involved in the refugee situation in Gaza. I saw nightly searches for wanted people. I knew what killing a suspect without a trial meant." But Amira has a deep, personal sense of the suffering in Jewish history:
"My mother was sent to Bergen-Belsen. She often told me about the walk to the camp. I feel as if I was there. A group of German women were watching... They were watching the 'marching skeletons' with indifferent curiosity... For me, these women became a repulsive symbol of the bystander. That disgusts me. I don't want to be a bystander."
What her mother's experience of the holocaust handed down to Amira was a burning sympathy for the oppressed. This beautifully shot film captures how conflict shapes daily life on both sides of the Palestinian-Israeli divide - all the time lit up by Amira's electric personality and flair for a soundbite. It shows her struggling to expose Palestinian suffering - and the energy and vision of her personal crusade.
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