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April 29, 2005
The land of opportunity?
Two new documentaries show varied hopes for Israel.
KATHARINE HAMER EDITOR
The bottom of Haladiya Street, in the old quarter of Jerusalem,
opens onto the Temple Mount and the Western Wall. Even before Israel
achieved statehood, its location made it a source of discord between
Jewish and Palestinian residents.
It was the street's position as a microcosm of ethnic tension that
first lured Israeli filmmaker Nissim Mosek nearly 20 years ago.
Mosek began filming in Haladiya Street in 1986, after the brutal
murder of a yeshivah student outside the home of Palestinian resident
Abu Bassem. Two decades later, Mosek's film Shalom Abu Bassem
will receive its world broadcast première on Vision TV, one
of two documentaries the Canadian broadcaster is screening to mark
Israel Independence Day. The other is End of Days –
a portrait of the interaction between Christian and Jewish Zionists,
by Canadian-Israeli director Martin Himel. Both directors spoke
with the Bulletin by e-mail from their homes in Israel.
Haladiya Street, explained Mosek, was a predominantly Jewish neighborhood
until 1936, when Arab riots prompted a mass exodus. Many of the
abandoned homes were taken over by Muslims. But since the 1980s,
Jewish settlers have been buying houses in the area and moving back
in. These days, said Mosek, the street is a model of peaceful if
sometimes uneasy co-existence, where women clad in hijabs cross
paths with black-coated rabbinical students.
Mosek's film also features Danny Robbins, a Jewish settler from
New York and Bassem's neighbor. We see the tensions between the
two wax and wane according to the political tensions taking place
within the country. At some stages they greet each other warmly
in the street. At others, they engage in a war of words. Over the
course of the film, a number of key historical events take place:
Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat sign a peace accord. Rabin is assassinated.
Ariel Sharon becomes a resident of Haladiya Street – and outsiders,
both Israeli and Palestinian, stage violent protest marches along
its narrow corridor.
Mosek had to struggle to convince residents to allow him to film.
He and his cameraman were spat upon, shouted at and had garbage
thrown at them. But ultimately, he gained the trust of both sets
of residents – a trust that helped bring the opposing sides
closer together.
"A good neighbor is better than a distant brother," says
Bassem in the film. "Give me a good neighbor and I will talk
to him, whoever he is ... if he respects me, I will respect him
back ... whoever hates us, we hate him back."
"When you get to know them better, you see that there are no
100 per cent good people or 100 per cent bad people," said
Mosek.
Himel's film, End of Days, represents "a universal dream,"
said the director, "the aspiration for a personal and greater
salvation for our uncertain lives."
Many Israelis are grateful for the support of Christian Zionists.
"The one group that kept coming, no matter how many suicide
bombings were taking place were the Christian Zionists," said
Himel, who spent many years as CTV's Jerusalem bureau chief. "They
were not deterred to show their support with their physical presence.
Despite the threat, that – to me – shows great friendship.
After all, friends in tough times are the best of friends."
But there is also clearly an unease about the Christian motivation
for lending that support. Christian evangelists believe that the
Messiah will reappear in Israel – and in order for that to
occur, the Chosen People – the Jews – must be returned
to their homeland in large numbers. But they also believe that some
Jews will not survive the so-called "End of Days."
"They're looking forward to Jews either dying or converting,"
says Israeli author Gershon Greenberg in the film. "They're
saying, 'I love you; change what's most basic about you.' "
"We have to respect, but suspect," says Israeli painter
Ellen Horowitz, one of the film's two main characters. (The other
is Donna Holbrook, a Torontonian who chairs the Canadian arm of
the International Christian Embassy.) Holbrook assures Horowitz
of her friendship. "You're not alone," she says. "We
care about you."
According to Himel, both women have their own view of an End of
Days scenario. But the Christian version is rather different. As
one of Holbrook's associates in the Christian Zionist movement,
Pat Johnson, puts it, "We don't want to offend [Jews]. We can't
save them. We just want them to see there's something different
out there."
End of Days airs on Vision TV at 10 p.m., Tuesday, May 3.
Shalom Abu Bassem airs at 10 p.m., Tuesday, May 10.
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