A Death In Gaza (2004) HBO Documentary

[Neshani]

Anyone else catch this? I know it's a few years old, but I just recently watched it. I thought it gave a powerful view of what daily life is like for some people living in Gaza and the West Bank.

Death In Gaza is an Emmy-award winning 2004 documentary film about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, opening in the West Bank but then moving to Gaza and eventually settling in Rafah where the film spends most of its time. It concentrates on 3 children, Ahmed (age 12), Mohammed (age 12) and Najla (age 16).

...

While filming this movie, Producer / Director James Miller was killed by an Israeli soldier. He was considered a martyr to the Palestinians and they waved his picture in the streets. Miller's death came about after he and fellow crew members were attempting to approach an Israeli APC at night time, audibly and visibly suggesting their neutrality as journalists by wearing helmets and flak vests marked "TV", waving a white flag and walking slowly in the open. A first warning shot was fired by an Israeli soldier, and a crew member reaffirmed their neutrality by yelling "We are British journalists". Seconds later, another shot was fired and hit Miller in the neck, killing him instantly. This occurred while the crew was filming military activity from one of the children's homes in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip.

I'm not sure how watchable these links are. Previewing it, the quality seems decent. There are a fair amount of subtitles in this film and they may be difficult to read on googlevideo. Check it out if you've got some free time and are interested in the subject matter.

Part 1:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6285051748819867080&hl=en

Part 2:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2752846334660051958&hl=en

 

[HERESY]

I'll peep, thanks for this.

 

[Neshani]

You're welcome. Let me know what you think. Especially about the end.

I don't want to minimalize the guy's death, but I didn't think that approaching an APC at night, in a war zone was exactly a smart thing to do.

 

[HERESY]

I finished watching it a couple of hours ago, and it's a shame he was killed before he could make the documentary about the Israeli children. A constant theme I noticed in the vid was the fact the people saw victory in death. When people are forced to take that type of mentality, they pretty much go for broke, and that's what you're seeing in the land. You have kids, innocent in this, throwing rocks at tanks and trying to fend them off. Mothers were crying and telling their sons not to embrace martyrdom, but what can you do when that's all you see?

Seriously, it's like a person in the ghetto or any barrio here in america. How are they not going to look up to dealers, pimps, etc when they don't have good role models or infrastructures in place to help them out? Same with the children in Gaza. How do you expect for them to not embrace it when they are being introduced to it in school and on the streets? How can you expect them not to embrace it when a child is smacked with a bullet?

About the guy going out at night, I would have stayed my ass at that house and would not have left. No one will be brought to justice for his death because no one with significant power to do so gives a shit about his death.

 

[Neshani]

Yeah, I definitely wish he could have done the second part on Israeli kids as well.

The amount of indoctrination that those kids go through is pretty disturbing.

As someone who does believe in Israel's right to exist, I can't help but think "How do you deal with an enemy like that". The ideas of opening up borders, etc. seem unsafe to say the least when you've got an enemy teaching their 2 year olds that you're the sons of dogs, that martyrdom is one of the best things you can achieve, etc.

Of course they're not all like that. Like the mom trying to get her kid to grow up and have kids and a house.

Still, the film was a pretty interesting look at some of the daily lives of kids in an extremely harsh environment.

 

[RobVan]

Bruno needs to get to work