Human Encounters on Mined Territory
In the complicated patchwork behind the term "Middle East Conflict", occasional rays of hope shine through despite the entrenched positions. There are people and organisations out there working towards understanding between the conflicting parties. One of these is an Israeli NGO by the name of Ir-Amim, meaning "city of nations" or "city of peoples" – a forum for critical positions that also attempts to give the Palestinians a voice.
Among other projects, Ir-Amim initiated the film festival "Jerusalem Moments – Small Moments of a Different Jerusalem", supported by the German Federal Foreign Office and Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations (ifa). This year, "Jerusalem Moments" presents ten Israeli and Palestinian films reflecting mainly on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Jerusalem and the future of the city, in very different and subtle ways.
Another perception of the city
"Jerusalem Moments" also opens up a very personal view of the complex lives of the inhabitants between the eastern and western parts of Jerusalem. The festival aims to enable differing perspectives of the dominant conflicts and stimulate public debate.
One example is the film Home by the Palestinian journalist Marwa Jbara Tibi – a true story based on an unusual encounter between Ilanit Satika and Ahmad Dabash, two victims of Jerusalem's housing policy.
Ilanit has lost her apartment in West Jerusalem, evicted by the Israeli authorities for outstanding rent. Ahmad meets her and her four children the day after her eviction, taking her in with his Arab family in the Muslim area of Sur Baher. But his house is under threat too, as Ahmad was forced to build it without an official permit. Tibi's impressive film shows how two "second-class citizens" find one another through a personal encounter, overcoming boundaries and stereotypes.
"I started making my film with no contract or funding possibilities at all," says Marwa Jbara Tibi. "I just had the impression it was a really strong human story."
Stones on the path
Her Israeli colleague Daniel Gal was in a similar situation. He stumbled across the subject of his film Children's Stories by coincidence: three Palestinian children who earn a living for their whole family by selling chewing gum at Jerusalem's busy intersections. Every day, they have to think about how to get across the wall. And every day, the three brothers find adverse ways to overcome the fence built to protect the Israeli population from Palestinian terrorist attacks.
"Almost everyone who lives in Jerusalem knows there are Arab children who sell chewing gum and other things here," says the director Daniel Gal. "So I've always known children like them." To get these children in front of the camera, though, he first made contact with all kinds of charities and welfare institutions. But in the end, he simply got talking to some kids at a crossroads, finally setting the ball rolling.
In Gal's film, the brothers Rami, Hussam and Younis climb over the wall on rickety ladders, squeeze through the tiniest of gaps and slip under the wall through filthy sewers. Their father no longer has any income, since the wall cut him off from his workplace.
To make the film in the first place, Gal had to win the children's trust – which wasn't always an easy undertaking. "One of the children in the film had a bad chin injury from a fall, and was taken to hospital in Jerusalem," Gal says. "But his father wasn't allowed into the city to help his son because he was a Palestinian." Gal took the initiative himself and looked after the child until his father could come. "Little by little, they started to trust me."
Focus on the human side
Marwa Jbara Tibi also found it impossible to stick to her role as a neutral journalist during the filming. A relationship developed between her and the Jewish mother, until the human side gradually outweighed the professional aspects.
In fact, Marwa Jbara Tibi is usually a vehement proponent of impartial journalism. Neither side should let itself be co-opted by one party, is her philosophy – one that ought to apply to every journalist. But in the explosive patchwork situation in which she works, that neutrality is often hard to maintain.
Marwa Jbara Tibi lives in a village founded jointly by Israelis and Palestinians: more than mere symbolism in a region divided by gigantic walls and degrading procedures at the checkpoints.
Daniel Gal lives in the Jewish part of Jerusalem, has many Palestinian friends and has often found that there are very few problems of understanding between artists and filmmakers. And like Marwa Jbara Tibi, he hopes that his work behind the camera will be a force for change.
"Through the work of journalists and artists, many people can view reality with their own eyes – or at least from the perspective that the journalists and artists adopt," says Gal. And he hopes that these ways of seeing things will make their way around the world.
Aya Bach
© Deutsche Welle 2008
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