Al Jazeera – Ali, a Palestinian veteran of the intifada, went to Saudi Arabia for medical treatment after an Israeli settler shot him in the leg.
While there, he learned that his younger brother Yusef had been killed by an Israeli soldier.
Ali had spent years in Israeli prisons for actions like demonstrating against the occupation, throwing stones, and being a member of a political party.
Ali says that he will never forgive the soldier who killed his brother, but that he does not have to love Israelis to make peace with them. He wants to move past the cycle of hatred and revenge.
When Yusef was killed, Ali joined the Bereaved Families Forum to work with Palestinians and Israelis who together advocate nonviolence and reconciliation, to look for a way forward.
Ali braves hatred of the “other” on both sides, and the stigma against those who work with the “enemy” as he spreads his message of nonviolent resistance throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Israel, speaking with Palestinian militants and those threatened by Israeli settlers.
Filmmakers: Julia Bacha and Ronit Avni
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Riveting. Ali is terrific. Thanks.
I admit I’ve only seen 10 mins of this, and it seems it’s becoming more interesting. But I don’t like Ali’s discourse at the start. I think I’ve actually met one of the israeli women we see arriving at the normalisation group. she arrived to talk to Palfest people at our hotel in jerusalem. She said that israeli victims and palestinian victims are the same. i said they both feel human fear, but they are not the same. one is the oppressor and one is the oppressed. she said, if you take sides like that you’ll encourage violence and won’t help anyone. these organisations, though some of the palestinians involved may be nice people, are based on liberal sentimentality. their highest function is to make israelis feel better.
It’s obvious: no justice, no peace.
someone in palestine told me about one of these groups, in which they aren’t allowed to talk politics, only ‘pain’. in the group a jew and a palestinian fell in love. they were expelled from the group.
i think building relationships with non- and anti-zionist israeli jews, and providing an inclusive vision of the one-state future, is essential. but normalisation with zionists is much worse than a waste of time.