Crossing the Gaza divide

ISRAELI television journalist Shlomi Eldar has been reporting on Arab affairs in Gaza and the West Bank for 20 years, but turned his hand to filmmaking in the compassionate but deeply disturbing documentary Precious Life, set against the backdrop of the 2008 Gaza war.

Nominated for a Best Documentary Oscar at the 2011 Academy Awards, Precious Life follows the story of Mohammed, a four-month-old Palestinian baby who suffers from a rare immune deficiency disease and is in desperate need of a bone-marrow transplant.

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Life-Saving Mission: “Precious Life” trailer

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Mohammed is the son of Raida and Kauzi Abu Mustafa from Gaza, and two of his sisters died of the same disease. But the operation costs $55,000 and Dr Raz Sommech, the specialist paediatrician treating the baby at Israel’s Tel Hashomer Hospital, contacts Eldar in the hope that the journalist can launch a TV appeal for donations.

An anonymous donor comes forward within hours, the father of an Israeli soldier killed during military service. But for Raida, Kauzi and Mohammed, this is only the beginning of a journey which gives profound insight into the corroding distrust and despair at the heart of Palestinian-Israeli relations.

When the attempt to save Mohammed is jeopardised by the Gaza war, Eldar engages in extraordinary risks and efforts to bring potential donors from Gaza to Tel Hashomer, while Dr Sommech treats Mohammed as if he was his own son.

But after the success of the operation, Raida stuns Eldar by endorsing the use of suicide bombers as a legitimate tool of Palestinian resistance, even if this was to mean the martyrdom of her own son – a confession that causes the documentary to radically shift gear.

“Raida was raised and educated in Gaza,” Eldar says by phone from Israel. “She believed what she was told about the evils of Israel and the Jews. Only when her son was treated in Israel did she start to like the Israelis. And this frightened her. Some Gazans were hostile to her. Religiously, she wasn’t one of them anymore.”

The documentary Precious Life shows a grimly smiling Raida trying to convince herself that death is normal, something to be actively embraced. Does this denial of the value and importance of life come from despair?

“Absolutely,” says Eldar. “The Gaza war was a desperate time. Life was cheap; this was the environment. And it was reinforced by Hamas propaganda. Now things are changing, I think. About 25 per cent of the population supports Hamas, but I know that non-Hamas supporters really believe we can solve the conflict. They are optimistic that we can return to 1967 borders, and work things out.”

As to Israeli reaction to Precious Life, Eldar is buoyed by widespread support for the film, and its potential to induce change on a personal level.

He also believes that reconciliation between Palestinians and Israelis can only be achieved if each side confronts and acknowledges the shared humanity of the other.

One scene in the film shows Eldar speaking live on television to a Palestinian friend, Dr Abu al-Aish, whose three young daughters had just been killed in an Israeli bomb attack on Gaza, with a fourth daughter needing medical help urgently.

“Twenty hours after that broadcast, a ceasefire was announced,” says Eldar. “The footage shocked Israel. Even the prime minister [Ehud Olmert] is said to have cried. For the first time it was brought home to Israelis that these people are human beings, not faceless numbers.”

Precious Life is currently screening.

REPORT by Jan Epstein
PHOTO: A Palestinian mother and baby at an Israeli hospital in a scene from Precious Life.