Reading Day 7
Pier Paolo Pasolini, Sopralluoghi in Palestina per il vangelo secondo Matteo, 60'
Review by XK
#review
This text was supposed to be a film review of Pasolini’s visits to Palestine, but the text wanted something else. It became a conversation between me and a few of my memories from when I lived in Palestine. I have been to most of the places Pasolini visited; they looked different back in 65’. The sequence in the movie of the Moroccan quarter in Jerusalem leaves me breathless. I’ve watched this sequence over and over again. I think it’s extraordinary! I have to show this to all of my friends. When I lived in Ramallah I wrote a lot about the destruction of the Moroccan quarter, after Israel occupied the old city of Jerusalem in 67’. Hundreds, if not thousands of year old houses were crushed to create the square in front of the western wall. One of many war crimes Israel has never been prosecuted for. The little sequence in the movie, just a few seconds no more, is valuable and so important – because it proves something that the state of Israel wants to be forgotten – that the Moroccan quarter did actually exist. I move myself to tears when I write this. Those houses, those homes, can’t be forgotten. Or will they be? We follow Pasolini through the Galilee and on the Syrian side of Lake Tiberias, now also annexed by Israel. We follow him to the Jordan River, to Nazareth, and to Jerusalem – the old city with its famous Damascus gate. I’ve seen the Damascus Gate so many times, for me the gate carries memories of relief. Close by the gate, just a few hundred meters further, is the east Jerusalem bus station, from which the Palestinian busses go to the west bank. I’ve taken these busses so many times, and every time there is this tension, because no one really knows if Qalandia, the Israeli checkpoint, will be open. Always as soon as I was through Qalandia I knew I could find my way home to where I lived. Technically I could walk if I wanted to, it would take a while but it would be possible because there would be no walls in between anymore. Pasolini was right, the Galilee really looks like Italy. The Galilee is the rich part of Israel, or the ‘European’ part, a bit greener than the rest and quite hilly. I passed through the Galilee when I was on my way to the Golan Heights in occupied Syria to celebrate my 25th birthday. I wanted three things for my birthday; to do something special, to do something I normally wouldn’t do, and to be alone (or at least with people I didn’t know). On the eve of my birthday, I went to the
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