Killing Gaza is a film chronicle of the extraordinary suffering caused by a military campaign of grossly disproportionate force used against a trapped population.
The 51-day Israeli military assault on the Gaza Strip in 2014 saw over 2,200 people killed, including some 550 children, by an unprecedented degree of military force being unleashed onto a civilian population. 100,000 homes were estimated to have been destroyed.
A year and a half later, the reconstruction promised by the international community has not taken place; in its absence, a humanitarian catastrophe has taken hold among the traumatized people of Gaza, who’ve been abandoned and forgotten by international institutions and governments. The documentary’s director and co-producer Max Blumenthal is an award-winning journalist and bestselling author. Blumenthal’s most recent book, The 51 Day War: Ruin and Resistance in Gaza, provides much of the basis for this film project.
Blumenthal’s most recent documentary, Je Ne Suis Pas Charlie, explored the climate of Islamophobia and repression that has swept through France after the Charlie Hebdo massacre. Co-produced by James Kleinfeld, that film was recently screened at Berlin’s Internationale human rights film festival.
Co-producer Dan Cohen is an independent journalist based in occupied East Jerusalem and has produced widely distributed video reports and dispatches from across Israel-Palestine for outlets ranging from Mondoweiss to Electronic Intifada and The Nation. Cohen is one of the few Western journalists to have spent prolonged periods in the Gaza Strip since Israel’s devastating assault.
‘We documented the assault on Gaza during the war and chronicled its horrific aftermath during two seasons of some of the most extreme weather the region has ever experienced. As we waded through the rubble of Gaza’s destroyed border regions, we turned a camera onto the survivors of the slaughter and let them speak for themselves’, Blumenthal tells us. ‘And Dan returned, week after week, to capture on film the daily struggles of the people of Gaza as they suffered through one of the worst winters in recorded history, and then weathered the sweltering summer heat without electricity and in many cases, without homes’.
The project is currently taking donations to ensure completion. You can help fund the completion of the film here; or share the link far and wide to help build support and awareness. You can also back the film here.
‘$30,000 will allow us to cover our debt for equipment upgrades and months of field work’, the filmmakers explain. They intend to screen the film as widely as possible, in film festivals around the world, through international broadcasters, and at community and campus forums, intending for it to be a vehicle for educating the public about the reality of life in Gaza, as well as to encourage international legal bodies and human rights groups to ‘transform the testimonies featured into this film into concrete action that holds Israel accountable’.
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Into nine years of the Israeli blockade, some 1.8 million Palestinians continue to be trapped in the Gaza Strip, essentially cordoned off from the outside world.
Oxfam summarises the catastrophe; ‘The humanitarian needs remain enormous. Gaza has witnessed its worst destruction in decades and an already vulnerable civilian population has been left even more vulnerable. More than 100,000 people (more than half of these children) have had their homes destroyed and are still displaced. Most of the water supply is unsafe to drink and there are power cuts of 12 hours a day. Restrictions on essential building materials mean that rebuilding homes has yet to begin. The blockade prevents most people from leaving Gaza or trading with the outside world and markets in the West Bank. Fishermen and farmers are restricted from accessing their land and often shot at while working. The economy has been devastated, with more than 60 per cent of youth now unemployed – the highest rate in the world’.
The charity organisation also estimates that ‘at current rates, it could take more than 100 years to complete essential building of homes, schools and health facilities in Gaza.’
I’m lost for words. Sobering.
What I will never understand – is why the Jews – (I say this because as I have mentioned before – there is no country called Israel) are allowed to get away with the annihilation of Palestine and it’s people.
I am not a Christian (Buddhism is the closest I get to any religion) – but the story of David and Goliath always comes to mind.
You’re right, Heather – David and Goliath is very apt. I always hesitate to talk in terms of ‘the Jews’, as I don’t actually believe in the whole ‘Jewish Conspiracy’ thing and don’t like to go down racial lines. It’s a Zionist Conspiracy in my view, rather than a Jewish one.
But you’re totally right about the David/Goliath analogy, and it’s extraordinary how much the State of Israel is able to get away with and for how long.
When the second world war ended – if any country should have been forced to give the Jews a “Homeland” it should have been Germany.
Mind you – I think it is appalling that any group of people should be given any land because of their religious affiliations.
You’re totally right, Heather, on both points.
5 Broken Cameras is another so very informative and heart-breaking film.
(the only TV channel to show any in-depth reporting on Gaza is Russian Television – probably helps a bit that George Galloway is a contributor).
What I will never understand – how can governments turn their backs and not even acknowledge the
inhuman suffering these people are enduring and have endured for as many years as I can remember.
I think partly because all these other conflicts and rights violations are going on elsewhere – drawing everyone’s attention away from Gaza and the West Bank. In fact while all the media is focused on Syria, or Iraq or Ukraine or wherever else, the Israeli state has been really taking the piss, probably knowing that most of the world is distracted.
Reblogged this on TheFlippinTruth.
Reblogged this on Saine Corner.
As far as I am concerned – there is no country called Israel – it is PALESTINE – and those murderous bastards that stormed in to the occupied territory should be permanently annihilated.
It breaks my heart to know of the terrible suffering in Gaza.