A piece i did for a human rights class at the screening at UCSB in 2011:
Vibeke Lokkeberg's Tears of Gaza attempts to capture the horrifying atmosphere during the 2008-2009 assault upon Gaza by the Israeli military. The footage is raw, disturbing, and yet meaningful. Present at the screening, Lokkeberg states her goals were simple: to capture the Palestinian victims in the 22 day conflict because no journalists were allowed inside Gaza at that time. At times you cannot help but feel certain scenes are staged, and this only hurts the film because it allows those that do not want to like the film the ability to discount it entirely. Both the director and producer came off as unbiased towards the political setting of the film, arguing that both sides are victims of a war that started hundreds of years ago or which they have no "part" of or answer to. But they did come off as big proponents of human rights, and it showed as an underlying theme in Tears of Gaza.
The film uses video from the citizens of Gaza as evidence of what took place, and all the footage is very personal and hand-held. In one scene the camera is running towards a house after a bombing, and citizens are digging through looking for survivors. They slowly find one body after another of toddlers, 4 of them, decapitated, bloodied—lifeless. In another scene that I personally found upsetting there are 3 babies, not more than 2 or 3, each with an execution shot (close range, precise, kill-hits) to their head or chest.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict relates to themes in class on multiple levels. There is an argument, especially recently with the information leaked by Wikileaks that there is a large element of exclusionary ideologies sanctioned by the Israeli government. In addition, there claims that Israel violates multiple agreements adopted in the Geneva conventions, particularly when dealing with the treatment of civilians— the film made it clear that, at times the Israeli military fails to make the distinction between combatants and civilians. The film did specify its documentation on the innocent, and in that sense I do believe that there is also a call for international intervention, or at the very least, knowledge of the true situation. What is clear in Tears of Gaza is that there are things happening to Palestine that should happen to no one, even in times of war—the Israelis indiscriminately kill children, fathers and mothers, and maybe intentionally, the future generations of Palestine.
Both Israel and Palestine committed war crimes by killing civilians. The only distinction is the capability of each side. Israel uses a realism argument saying that Palestinian militants fired from civilian areas, and thus their systematic attacks on these areas were justified. Israel is a military powerhouse, containing one of the world's strongest militaries, effective intelligence, and advanced technology. They knew where they were firing, and what each shot was going to do. The Palestinians are still decades back in killing capability—firing rockets and mortars. The fact is ~1400 Palestinians were killed in the conflict, ~300 of which were children—Israel lost 13 people, of which 1 at the most was a child (numbers vary depending on your source). A life is a life, and there is no argument that each side violated various human rights from this war, but the sheer numbers should say something regarding the magnitude of these violations. I gathered a lot from the film due to the American media portraying are Israeli allies biasedly—I can better than before empathize with the Palestinians. Tears of Gaza did not show me who was wrong in this on-going struggle between the warring states, but it did show me the harsh reality that neither side is right.
Vibeke Lokkeberg's Tears of Gaza attempts to capture the horrifying atmosphere during the 2008-2009 assault upon Gaza by the Israeli military. The footage is raw, disturbing, and yet meaningful. Present at the screening, Lokkeberg states her goals were simple: to capture the Palestinian victims in the 22 day conflict because no journalists were allowed inside Gaza at that time. At times you cannot help but feel certain scenes are staged, and this only hurts the film because it allows those that do not want to like the film the ability to discount it entirely. Both the director and producer came off as unbiased towards the political setting of the film, arguing that both sides are victims of a war that started hundreds of years ago or which they have no "part" of or answer to. But they did come off as big proponents of human rights, and it showed as an underlying theme in Tears of Gaza.
The film uses video from the citizens of Gaza as evidence of what took place, and all the footage is very personal and hand-held. In one scene the camera is running towards a house after a bombing, and citizens are digging through looking for survivors. They slowly find one body after another of toddlers, 4 of them, decapitated, bloodied—lifeless. In another scene that I personally found upsetting there are 3 babies, not more than 2 or 3, each with an execution shot (close range, precise, kill-hits) to their head or chest.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict relates to themes in class on multiple levels. There is an argument, especially recently with the information leaked by Wikileaks that there is a large element of exclusionary ideologies sanctioned by the Israeli government. In addition, there claims that Israel violates multiple agreements adopted in the Geneva conventions, particularly when dealing with the treatment of civilians— the film made it clear that, at times the Israeli military fails to make the distinction between combatants and civilians. The film did specify its documentation on the innocent, and in that sense I do believe that there is also a call for international intervention, or at the very least, knowledge of the true situation. What is clear in Tears of Gaza is that there are things happening to Palestine that should happen to no one, even in times of war—the Israelis indiscriminately kill children, fathers and mothers, and maybe intentionally, the future generations of Palestine.
Both Israel and Palestine committed war crimes by killing civilians. The only distinction is the capability of each side. Israel uses a realism argument saying that Palestinian militants fired from civilian areas, and thus their systematic attacks on these areas were justified. Israel is a military powerhouse, containing one of the world's strongest militaries, effective intelligence, and advanced technology. They knew where they were firing, and what each shot was going to do. The Palestinians are still decades back in killing capability—firing rockets and mortars. The fact is ~1400 Palestinians were killed in the conflict, ~300 of which were children—Israel lost 13 people, of which 1 at the most was a child (numbers vary depending on your source). A life is a life, and there is no argument that each side violated various human rights from this war, but the sheer numbers should say something regarding the magnitude of these violations. I gathered a lot from the film due to the American media portraying are Israeli allies biasedly—I can better than before empathize with the Palestinians. Tears of Gaza did not show me who was wrong in this on-going struggle between the warring states, but it did show me the harsh reality that neither side is right.