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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