About 15 people attended the Cherry Tree to watch two short films, one about the work of the Israeli Committee against House Demolitions. ICAHD is a human rights and peace organisation which campaigns to end Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian Territory. Its strapline is ‘Resisting Occupation Constructing Peace’ and ICAHD rebuilds homes as a form of political resistance.
The other film, My Neighbourhood, is about Palestinian teenager, Muhammed El Kurd, living in Sheikh Jarrah in the heart of East Jerusalem, who returns home from school to find that Israeli settlers had taken over half his home. This is an immensely moving film of a young boy growing up in an increasingly violent environment and trying to make sense of it. He starts off hating Jews but ends up becoming friends with an Israeli protestor who with others initiated the Sheikh Jarrah Friday protests against the Israeli policy of demolishing Palestinian houses to make way for Jewish suburb. At the end of the film, when Muhammed is a few years older, he declares his intention to become a Human Rights advocate and work to reclaim his home.
Angela