Left I on the News

Last night I watched the new documentary from journalists Dan Cohen and Max Blumenthal, "Killing Gaza". If you want to have your heart ripped out and torn into shreds, watch this film. If you like feeling totally devastated, watch this film. Nobody likes those things. But you should still watch this film. Because it is an utterly devastating indictment of the brutality, the barbarity, with which the Israeli government, with the full economic, military, and diplomatic support of the United States government, treats the Palestinian people, and especially the Palestinians of Gaza.

The film is about the brutal Israeli assault on Gaza four years ago this month (and last month), or, as Wikipedia so neutrally (and inaccurately) puts it, the "2014 Israel-Gaza conflict". That assault (really a protracted reign of terror) killed, according to the U.N., 2251 Palestinians, of which 1462 were civilians (including 315 children). It also destroyed substantial portions of Gaza, most not rebuilt to this day, and of course left many thousands more physically or mentally scarred. You'll see footage of that, but most importantly, you'll hear testimony from the survivors. Palestinians talking about their dead family members, their destroyed houses, their shattered hopes and dreams. Palestinians talking for themselves, Palestinians with actual names, something which is totally absent from Western media. It's heart-wrenching, but also essential footage to understand the reality. And it's footage you won't see anywhere else, certainly not on any Western mainstream news outlet.

As I watched this film, I couldn't help wondering about the little boys you see playing in the rubble. Have some of them now become victims themselves of the latest Israeli atrocities, as Israeli snipers kill and maim Palestinians participating in the Great March of Return? I fear so.

Dan and Max are to be congratulated for making this story, as hard as it is to watch, available to the wider world. I'm pretty sure you won't be seeing it in your local theater or on PBS' Frontline or in any such locale. Right now, it's available on Vimeo. If you're not a Vimeo customer, as I wasn't, you have to sign up first, which is simple. It's also a bit tricky because if you just go to Vimeo and search for "Killing Gaza" you find only the trailer (at least that's what happened to me on my tablet; on a computer it seems to turn up). Instead you need to go to the movie's website here, click on "Watch the film here" and you'll end up here, where you can pay $3 to rent the film for three days or $5 to buy it (and watch it repeatedly). Then you can go to Vimeo's website on your computer (or use the Vimeo app on your phone or tablet), go to your purchases (under your profile on a computer) and watch the film. It isn't the simplest process, but it's worth it. Incidentally the app is "Chromecast-enabled", so if you have a Chromecast device you can end up watching it on your TV rather than on your tablet or computer; really far preferable in my book.