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Palestinian mourners (file)
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| By Ariana Melamed January 10, 2007 |
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Here is a moment of total absurdity: A European Union aid delegation arrives at Gaza's Shifa Hospital in the summer of 2006. It was just after Gilad Shalit's kidnapping and the beginning of the IDF's second-to-last attack, which as we know changed nothing, including Hamas and Fatah's custom of shooting at each other in the hospital's courtyard.
The esteemed members of the delegation, dressed for a European spring, were already sweating. One of the women, in a suit and carefully coiffed blond hair, did not allow the noise from the shooting or the armed men in uniform shooting in all directions to bother her.
Politely shaking the hand of the hospital's director, who looked as if he'd rather die than be revealed in that way to his benefactors, she said, "It's a pleasure to be here." It was moments like that, along with its distance from its subject, that made "The Tea Boy of Gaza" an excellent film.
For the average jaded viewer, Gaza is only headlines about problems. Its people who flicker on our screens can be divided into four groups: Formal spokesmen that we hate, terrorists that we hate, dead people that in the best case we no longer hate, and professional female weepers. How good it is that there are still people in the world who see beyond this and are prepared to tell the story.
The protagonist is 12-year old Mahmoud al-Bahtiti. Yes, children always steal the show. Yes, if there were peace in the Middle East this boy would be starring in an educational program for gifted studetns. Three years ago the IDF destroyed his father's business, and since then he has supported the family by selling tea. His equipment includes a stainless steel kettle and paper cups. Tea leaves and sugar have gone up in price since Hamas came to power.
On occasion he has had the honor of gathering the body parts of martyrs. This frightens him. He hates politics. His smile wins his customers over, and his sales strategy is no different from that of a giant corporation: Anyone who doesn't want to pay receives tea for free. There are discounts for purchase in bulk. At the end of one day he manages to bring home four shekels (less than $1).
Human stupidity south of the checkpoint
The story focuses on him and his world, which revolves around Shifa Hospital. This is one of the least safe places in Gaza because the armed men of the various Palestinian factions refuse to relinquish terror for the benefit of the wounded, and continue shooting at each other.
The doctors haven't been paid in five months. The chief orthopedic nurse moonlights as a cab driver. At the end of the day he brings home NIS 20. He has seven children. He speaks excellent English and he supports Hamas: "We knew it would be harder, we accept the difficulties, that is our choice."
He is bitter, and the entire chasm of misunderstanding is opened up here once again, and causes despair once again. Why should they accept the difficulties with understanding? Because we are Muslims, he explains. A group of children he encounters is prepared to call Sheikh Yassin a hero and to say that the Jews who stole Palestine are asses. Is this normalcy? There is no such thing in Gaza, either in the hospital or outside it.
One interviewee, fluent and excellent and in pain, hates Hamas. Dr. Jomma Al Saqqa is a surgeon who has of necessity become a politician and an intermediary in the attempts to stop the shooting in his department, but this doesn't help. During the filming, he and the hospital's director are more than once seen crouching in their offices and taking cover.
The poverty, the lack of international support, the economic situation, the physical dangers, the pompous spokesmen for non-functioning government offices, the ruins of Haniyeh's office following Israeli shelling, the price of tea, the destruction of infrastructure: All the facts we no longer have the strength to hear or to see are organized here in a flowing story that doesn't make accusations against anybody.
That's the way it is when the BBC orders a film from an independent producer who has no obligation to the latest violent headline of the day, but who wants just to show human stories of desperation and the lack of a way out and terrible intransigence that is getting more extreme as things get harder.
"The Tea Boy of Gaza" was written, filmed, and directed by Olly Lambert, who also gave the film its name. The film's Hebrew title refers to Hamas and Fatah. I suppose this is meant to draw the attention of those who have not yet despaired at watching the human stupidity that takes place south of the Karni crossing. Mahmoud al-Bahtiti will continue to sweeten it with tea until he, too, is shot.
Reprinted with permission from Ynet. |
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