On the allegedly insufficient mention of context in NAZA

 

A Facebook post by Amira Hass



Regarding the question of why the film NAZA does not sufficiently show or discuss the context of October 7 and the murder and abduction of civilians (as opposed to armed combatants), whether Jewish, Palestinian-Arab, or foreign workers, by Hamas and its associates: I will answer your question with a question. Would you allow us, and would it be possible for us, to present the full context behind the actions of every gun-toting Palestinian and abductor (or any other Palestinian who took the life of a Jew)?

1) The expulsion of the family and the plundering of their land, property, and orchard produce in 1948.

2) The mass killing of family members, friends, and neighbours during the occupation of Gaza in 1956.

3) Military occupation in 1967.

4) The deportation of family members to Sinai.

5) Revocation of residency status for those who had been abroad, and a ban on returning to the Gaza Strip.

6) Demolition of homes in the refugee camp to facilitate the easy passage of military forces.

7) Exploitation of cheap Palestinian labour for Israel’s prosperity following the recession of the 1960s, alongside a ban on economic development within the Gaza Strip (and the West Bank).

 Torture during the interrogation of thousands—and tens of thousands—of people.

9) Settling Jews in the most water-rich and uninhabited areas within the Strip.

10) Mass, serial humiliating arrests, followed by automatic convictions in a military justice system where the perpetrator of violence acts as both prosecutor and judge.

11) The killing of, at first, dozens, then hundreds, and finally thousands of unarmed people during various rounds of military repression, often before the eyes of their families.

12) Israeli opposition to a political settlement that would lead to a Palestinian state in the territory occupied in 1967, and the deliberate severing of the Gaza Strip from the population of the West Bank.

13) Economic strangulation as a means of control and punishment.

14) Draconian movement restrictions that permanently separate family members and friends living just 70 kilometres apart, preventing them from seeing one another.

15) Withholding the supply of potable water (prior to October 7; to make up for the water Israel steals from Palestinians in the West Bank, it could have supplied water to Gaza).

16) Killing fisherfolk or arresting them to extort information about Hamas. And so on, and so on, for the list keeps on growing longer than the time we have available.

Any film presenting the full context of such events would, therefore, be ten times longer than Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah.

[Translated by Sol Salbe]