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“I never
planned to film: “Jerusalem’s High Cost” but I was there when
everything
started. I was at
the right time and at the right place.” Said Hazim Bitar, a
Palestinian-
American filmmaker.
Bitar decided to visit
his ancestor’s land and without knowing he found himself on a dark
an
unhappy journey.
The primary purpose of
his trip was homecoming. His family, Jerusalemite publishers, was
forced to flee the city
in 1948 and 1967. His documentary entitled “Jerusalem’s High Cost”
opens with a brief
explanation about the exile by his grandparent’s generation.
On September 29, 2000,
Ariel Sharon’s incursion into AL-Aqsa sanctuary accompanied by
at least 1,000 armed
soldiers and police officers triggered the outbreak of the current
crisis
that has so far led to
the death of almost two thousands of Palestinians and the wounding
of hundreds.
As a normal tourist
Bitar was walking in the Old Jerusalem and taking some photos when
suddenly he saw people
running and shouting. Without knowing very much what he was
doing he found himself
in the eye of the storm as a witness. He lived the drama of many
Palestinians families
who lost their relatives.
In his documentary of 53
minutes Bitar shows how a 23-year-old Osama Mohammad
Jaddad, an African
Palestinian from the Old City of Jerusalem was on his way to give
blood
but was gunned down by
an Israeli sniper at the Makassed Hospital. The hospital is
located in a residential
area. In Bitar’s film we can see Israeli troops firing into the
crowd
and Palestinian
teenagers throwing rocks from behind a dumpster.
Most of the time Bitar
focuses in the hospital on three cases: Haitham Oweidah who was
praying in the Haram and
was shot in the head. Obeidah was officially brain-dead, but his
heart was beating. The
second case was Azzam Abdeen who was shot in the face with a
rubber-coated steel
bullet and the third case Osama Jaddad. The hospital was crowed
and the victim’s
families have gathered waiting for news. After the doctor’s efforts
to save
Osama he died.
After the funeral Bitar
had the opportunity to go to Osama’s house and talk to his mother
who was lost and stoic.
In his film we can
listen to five young Israelis and their ideas about Arabs and peace
between Palestinians and
Israelis. All of them born abroad: two Americans, one Russian,
one Polish and one South
African. The only one who was for peace was the Polish; the
others didn’t see any
chance for peace.
According to the Russian
guy the Arabs are primitive people-Bedouins in the desert who
don’t know shit about
nothing-as opposed to people in Europe who deal with high-tech
stuff. He added, “ Let them live in the Gaza Strip, in Jericho, but I don’t want
them.”
Bitar asked the South
African girl if she is for peace, she replied, “No, not with
Arabs.”
Bitar has another
documentary entitled “Uncivil Liberties”. It exposed the alarming
use of
secret evidence in US
courts against Arabs and Muslims. The film highlights ‘the
Kafkaesque ordeal of
Professor Mazen Al-Najjar, which still continues.
Almost 30 or so Arabs
and Muslims are imprisoned on the basis of secret evidence.
Bitar interviewed Mazen
Al-Najjar and his family about his ordeal as well s several
politicians among them
Congressman Tom Campbell, R-San Jose, and Legal scholars.
This is an informative
documentary that shows the American justice system and the
consequences it can
create on one man and his family. Najjar was deported to Lebanon.
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