Paradise Now

Said and Khalid are ready. They're time has come to attack in a suicide mission. And then the day is there and as the rest of us beings on this planet, there is doubt in their minds. There is fear of being caught and there is fear of letting down their only one true cause, living in a community which is already dead.

The movie Paradise Now is exciting, calm and collective, educating, insightful and has some very nice plot-twists. The end sets your mind free...for at least one minute, which is something in these days.

Before going to the cinema, me and a friend watched Death in Gaza. A documentary shot between 2001 and 2004 during the second Intifada in the Gaza strip by James Miller, who tragically died during the filming by an Israeli bullet. Watching this movie before watching Paradise Now put everything even more in perspective and really made Paradise Now 'real'. In Death in Gaza you can see boys from the age of 8 being radicalized, indoctrinated, filled up with violence and hatred. Their world is a prison, their way out is death.

Compared with our Western so-called 'chanceless'-folk, these Palestinian kids can not even possibly imagine going to University or taking their life into their hands in a positive way. It just is not an issue. Surely there is continuous struggle between this militant side and the civilian side. But the more Israel punishes, the more reason children will see in the way of the kamikaze.

Then Hamas is elected. Westerners view this with mixed emotions. On one hand it won democratically and is ready to end the Fatah-reign, which was more about Swiss bank-accounts and Tunisian Villa's than about the Palestinian struggle. Europeans especially like the sound of 'education, healthcare, justice'. This are Hamas' strong points. On the other hand Hamas is sworn to destroy Israel, which, as long as Hamas does not possess any kind of War Industry, means more suicide missions and more senseless violence from an area already so desperate and torn. Hamas is Terrorism. Hamas' education is hate-preaching. Hamas is not even Islam. But, Hamas does learn to behave in a democratically elected fashion and Hamas is in dialogue with the West, something that cannot be said for Al Qaida, Taliban, Al Zarqawi etc...

What all must acknowledge is that Peace is a Process. The upcoming Israeli elections will probably continue on the road of Unilateral disengagement. I fear this Addiction for Security will choke the state of Israel, destroy the pursuit of joy in Palestinian areas and many many more will fall. Then again, I understand the Unilateralism as some sort of Political Fatigue of Negotiations. So where is the man with enough charisma to have genuine talks? Where is the civil authority of Israel that will downsize the army?

Not to be seen. Disgusting lobbies in Jewish US who sabotage Paradise Now for it is a Palestinian movie, and Palestine does not exist. These type of Jews really make me sick inside. There are not nearly enough curse words for this kind of ignorant behavior. Sure, even if you have lost some one due to an attack, you condemn the movie. But not even taking one fucking neuron in your pity little brain to figure out that an artistic expression is a defusing mechanism shows you deserve to live in pain.

Go watch the movie already people...