Gaza Strip

The Gaza Strip is a stretch of land bordering the Mediterranean, measuring a mere 28 miles by four; but it is home to 1.2 million Palestinians (and some 6,000 Israeli settlers). Langley’s film – shot in the spring of 2001 during the second intifada – draws a extraordinary portrait of a country and people under seige, focussing on the (admittedly atypical) exploits of articulate young paper-seller Mohammed Hejazi. If you want to know how it feels to be the victim of Israeli state terrorism, see this film. Footage, included here, of the Khan Yunis ‘black gas’ attack and the testimony of its victims (who suffer spasms and neurological effects untypical of those caused by the usual tear gas bombs) are yet to be accepted as evidence by the Israeli authorities. A vivid view into the nightmare conditions obtaining on this troubled part of the Palestinian diaspora.