Till The Last Rubble
By Flora Nicoletta
29 March, 2010
Uruknet.info
Gaza in 90 seconds - Promo by Media Group Company
It's a CD on Gaza without a name and without words. The images speak by themselves. For whom hates Gaza, it's boring. For whom loves Gaza, it's heartbreaking.
Before the rubble be removed, the Gaza-based Media Group has recorded on a CD forty sites destroyed by the Israeli air force in the Gaza Strip from Saturday 27 December 2008 till Sunday 18 January 2009, during the military operation codenamed Cast Lead. The CD lasts for a hour and forty-five minutes. Alas, scores of other important sites have not been filmed, but it would be an impossible task given the magnitude of the mass demolition operation.
The images of the destruction are preceded by a clip, "Gaza in 90 seconds", that is a resume of the war... and one cannot believe his eyes at the end of the CD.
Media Group provides production facilities for a number of international TV networks. It was established in 2002 in Gaza City by Atef Issa who started with a camera only. At that time, Atef was the Director of Engineering for the national Palestine TV whose HQ was in Gaza.
Atef Issa: "We don't want to repeat the mistakes of the Nakba [when in 1948 most of the Palestinian people were uprooted and expelled from their ancestral homeland on the creation of Israel]. To the best of my knowledge the images which exist and document our tragedy don't last for more than 25 minutes.
"As a producer and film director, I have seen a lot of films on the 1948 war. They only last for 25 minutes, it's all, films from UN, Lebanon, Egypt, Canada, etc. It's all what we have... only a 25 minutes tape documents the time when most of our people became refugees.
"There was cinema in Palestine at that time, but no documentaries and no archive, although Palestine was the first Arab country for film making in Jaffa, in Jerusalem. I don't understand why they did not build their own archive and keep their films.
"I'm certain that after twenty, twenty-five years we will still speak about the Israeli war on Gaza and we will have the images. The work we have done doesn't belong to us because these events affect the entire Palestinian people. I consider that the CD doesn't belong to me... the Palestinian people is the owner of it.
"It was easy to film the rubble before they were removed, but we were shooting like mad because the time was running against us. I rapidly got the security clearance and all the official authorizations for shooting. We worked for fifteen days over a period of two months, from the end of March to mid-May 2009. It was spring, a good time for shooting.
"I worked with two camera crews. Once we were shooting in Gaza City and we heard there were going to clear debris in Jabalia... I was always in a hurry. Another time my crew begged the driver of a big bulldozer to wait till we could film the ruins.
"I have done this work for free. So far I have given more than 300 copies of my CD to the Ministry of Information, Ministry of Culture, the members of the Legislative Council, Raji Es-Sourani of the PCHR, the Human Rights organizations, the Municipality of Gaza City, the Public Library of Gaza City, the local VIPs, to the foreign press visiting Gaza. Furthermore, my images can be used freely by anybody who wants to make a film on Gaza.
"I regret that there is no official policy on that matter. We have two governments, one in Gaza and the other one in Ramallah. We have two Ministries of Information. We have two Ministries of Culture. We have many official bodies. No one cares. They look at the situation as if it was not their own business. Therefore, why not to play the role of a ministry, why not to take the initiative as Palestinians who love their country and want to record what is happening. The cultured man, the media man is the first man who resists and the last one who is defeated.
"Most of the bombardments took place in residential areas. It's not enough to show Saraya central prison or El-Abbas police station destroyed, for instance. It's not enough to say that because the entire area was affected. It's not enough to say a F16 warplane has bombarded here and there. For that reason, the camera moved from a house to another house in the devastated area and I used a special type of camera to get images of quality.
"You can see several locations, from different angles, from the top, from down... and from Rafah to Beit Hanoun. I forgot to tell you the French, for instance, are different from the British. Some shoot at close range, other from far. I took into consideration all the schools, France, Italy, UK, etc, because I don't know who in future will utilize the shoots.
"Although the images show only devastated places, according to me they are very beautiful. It's like doing a trip in a taxi, while you are sitting here. It's like a tour. We chose the time of the day for good shooting, not too dark, not too bright, in order to get pictures with cool colours.
"When started the war, I bought all the cameras available on the local market. If I found 100 cameras I would take them. I spent in total approximately 25.000 dollars. It was war, the shops were closed and I was afraid I would find nothing. I bought microphones, so far I didn't utilize them. I also bought accessories for computers because I didn't know how long would last the war. I just went to the shops and I bought.
"In the past, I used to write my own stories. I'm a producer and a director. However, I stopped producing dramas because of the events taking place here, because of the Gaza news. I have to tell the truth to the world. Further, it's futile to write dramas, we live in a drama, we are the drama.
"I want to show you in my archive pictures of all the people who worked for Media Group during the war, more than seventy. A number of journalists slept here, in our offices, and ate here, males and females. They had their breakfasts, lunches and dinners here, and they had their showers here with sweet and hot water. Because there was no water at all, I bought tanks of drinking water for the showers. It was the only water available on the market.
"I had generators and fuel here. However, the people were afraid of the bombardments, so I was asked to move elsewhere the tanks of fuel. How to cover the war without electricity? Nobody was authorized to keep fuel in a residential area. It was a big problem!
"During the war I slept for twenty-three days in my office, you can see the mat here... After twenty-three days, the people returned home. I remained in my office for another ten days, although I live in Tal El-Hawa which is not far from here... because after the war we worked more than during the war. After ten days I went to see what happened to my home and nothing had happened... only a few things were broken...
"I'm 50. I was born in Gaza, but originally my family is from El-Faluja, in Palestine-1948. My father was working in Kuwait and I went to Egypt to complete my education. I graduated in Electronic and Telecommunication Engineering at the University of Alexandria. I worked for Kuwait TV for ten years, from 1985 till 1995. In 1990, I was in Kuwait when Iraq invaded the country. So, I have experience because after the 1990 war we were without cameras... everything was destroyed during the war.
"I came to Gaza in 1995, after the establishment of the Palestinian Authority. I worked as Director of Engineering for Palestine TV. After the internecine fighting, the Palestine TV headquarters was moved to Ramallah, in June 2007. I worked in Gaza when Fatah ruled it, I am working in Gaza while Hamas rules it, and I will continue to work in Gaza in the future regardless of whom will control the Strip.
"On Friday 9 January 2009, around twenty journalists and technicians were present on the roof of the 11-story El-Jawhara building where are located our offices. The city was already bombarded several times that evening. Some time after 19:00, a missile fired from an Israeli warplane fell on the roof, eight to ten meters from us. It exploded and one of us was lightly injured to the head. Shrapnel of the missile went down in a sort of chimney till the basement. For that we were unhurt. I keep some of the fragments here, in a ashtray. You see... as souvenirs... We were broadcasting live for three channels simultaneously. We were on air at that time. We were lucky..."
Today, the rubble have been cleared and taken away from most of the devastated areas. After the giant trucks, arrived boys and teens, some girls and women and they put debris on their donkey carts. It is an endless work. Last week, a Bedouin woman told me she receives 10 shekels every time she sells what she brings to a man. She has nine children and the oldest study at the university.
Since a certain time flourish new construction sites and plenty of buildings are being renovated in Gaza. Floor tiles removed from destroyed buildings are re-used. Good stones and broken stones removed from the facades are also re-used. Big stones are reduced to gravel or small stones. Some are mixed with sand before a street be paved with interlocks. Factories use the rubble to make bricks. The Egyptian cement is brought into Gaza through tunnels in normal bags protected by white plastic bags.
There are still tons and tons of ruins to remove in the Gaza Strip. The second hand stones have become an industry. New jobs opportunities have been created. Do you know another country where exist second hand stones, ask the people.
- Flora Nicoletta is an independent journalist who lives in Gaza. She is currently working on her fourth book on the Palestinian question.
