Timecode | Visual reference | Sync sound (normal text) and Ghassan's voice-over (in Italics) |
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| 10:00:00 | Fade-up sound. . | Title: About Gaza |
| 10:00:09:00
10:00:18:00 | Ghassan on London street in suit. Super: Ghassan Abu-Sitta. | I went to Gaza as part of a UN sponsored medical programme and took six months leave from my job as a surgeon in the UK.
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| 10:00:19:00 |
| As a diaspora Palestinian, I felt that this is where I belong. |
| 10:00:24:00 10:00:32:00 | Wipe to Gaza street. Washing in wind
| Even though I'd never lived in Gaza, it's a place that I've always regarded as home. |
| 10:00:33:00 10:00:38 | Kids on refugee camp street. | It's where the two currents in my life meet: my profession and my sense of identity. |
| 10:00:38 | Handheld moving walk into clinic. | Arabic. |
| 10:00:48:00 | WS clinic, Ghassan and man, with nurses.
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| 10:00:49:00
| Machine-gun on table. | Arabic (Fee shrapnel) |
| 10:00:55:00 | CU hands, blood on man's neck. | Ghassan: OK. |
| 10:00:58:00
10:01:12:00 | CU hands and head. | Ghassan: Ah la' GCS 15, pupils equal w reactive, he has a piece of shrapnel just underneath. Arabic: Kamaan mutsawib?! |
| 10:01:16:00
10:01:29:00
10:01:37:00 | CU man. CU Ghassan
Fade to black. | Ghassan: They were basic... he was in a taxi, and they were driving close to Erez. And the Israelis fired at them. He's got a piece of shrapnel just under the skin. Just under his scalp. But otherwise, I don't think it's gone into his skull. We need to do a skull X-Ray just to make sure what's there. |
| 10:01:40:00
10:01:51
10:02:01
| Fade up WS camera follows Ghassan in building complex. Ghassan sighs, points into distance.
Ghassan walks forward. We follow Ghassan. |
You can see the destruction coming from that camp. It's all coming from the direction of that camp we filmed. Christine: ‘Is that where they fire from? G: Yeah. We can't cross, we'll have to come back from the other side, because this is exposed and if they see us with a camera they will shoot us. Christine: ‘Can they not see us now?' G: La', because its', we're blocked by the building. But if we were to cross there, they can see us.
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| 10:02:25:00
10:02:30
10:02:55
10:03:09:00
10:03:32:00 | Ghassan to camera with guard in background. MS washing in wind.
Ghassan to camera.
Ghassan to camera. WS flats.
Ghassan to camera.
Walks away. Fade to black. | This is as close to the frontline as you can get and come back in one piece.
A lot of the families spend the day in these flats and then move out at night and stay with relatives over night. Cause at night usually that's when the shooting gets worse. That flat in the corner there, is where one of my cousins lives. But they've had to leave the house because it's constantly under fire. So they're staying with relatives at the moment. You wanna film inside the house? And see bullet holes inside the house? Voice in Arabc. He doesn't think it's a good idea for us to go into these flats. So, if, if.. ‘Why?' ‘Why? Because... that's a good question. It's sad. It's unsafe for us to go there, and these people have to live inside there. |
| 10:03:34:00
10:03:41 | Fade from black. WS Gaza street with kids. |
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| 10:03:42
10:04:16:00
10:04:26:00 | WS hospital corridor. Ghassan walks in.
Into room, with Mohammad Al Hissi. | VO: One evening, I was standing on the balcony of the flat I was staying at, and I could see on the coastal road, an ambulance speeding down, and then I saw an Israeli helicopter gunship. And as the ambulance ws driving out of sight, the helicopter guship fired at the ambulance, and I remember thinking whoever is in that ambulance is dead. Mohammad Al Hissi, a 21-year old paramedic, survived that attack. A couple of days later I was contacted by one of the hospitals, and they wanted me to be involved in his management. |
| 10:04:37:00
10:05:03:00
10:05:20:09 | WS green door, nurses.
Ghassan in operating gear.
Cutaway to Mohammad and nurse in corridor. | G: Em, two weeks ago I was involved in an operation where we repaired the inner aspect of his left thigh, which basically had lost the skin, underlying fat, and part of the muscle, and required closure. We also removed several shrapnels, one was lying on a nerve in his right leg. And today we will be grafting a couple of raw areas, he probably needs some adjustment to the fracture in his right arm, but otherwise we're hoping he can go home next week, having stayed in hospital probably for forty five days by then. |
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10:05:45
10:05:56
10:06:00:00
| Ghassan putting on operating robe. With nurse.
Nurses putting Mohammad on operating table.
Ghassan looking on. | What I didn't expect when I went to Gaza, was the sense that I had when I was there, that although these people I was treating were other people, the violence was directed at me.
By treating them, I was taking part in pushing back the violence that was directed against them and myself, because I am one of them, and that's why I went there. |
| 10:06:01:00
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10:06:41
10:07:01:00
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10:07:32:00 | Nurses standing about. Discussions. Close up metal instrument (knife).
CU Ghassan with mask.
Mohammad in op room.
CU Ghassan.
Nurse with equipment. Nurse standing, Dr on chair in background.
Looks away, Mohammad wheeled out, Ghassan washes his hands. |
It seems the blade and the knife come from completely two different sources, and the blade that we managed to get hold of does not fit the knife that we managed to get hold of, so we can't put the patient to sleep. Christine: ‘What's the plan?' G: The plan is to phone one of the other hospitals to see if we can borrow their knife and the blades that come with it. The problem is Gaza is now in three different areas, with a checkpoint separating the areas. Between the three, I'm sure there are enough equipment and Gaza is small enough for you to be able to share the equipment around. The problem is you can't get hold of anything outside this section of Gaza. Anything that we do need takes two days to come, and that's assuming it ever does come, because sometimes those checkpoints are closed completely. |
| 10:07:31
10:07:52:00 | Mohammad in corridor. | Arabic: Subtitles: I don't know what's going to happen. They were supposed to remove this brace. I may have to wait another month now. Hopefully it will be OK. |
| 10:07:52:01 | WS empty operating theatre. Fade to black. |
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| 10:08:00:00
10:08:06:00 | Fade up WS woman in black with child in blanket crossing road. Fade to black. |
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| 10:08:09:00
10:08:58:00 | Tracking shot Wall. | One of the main functions of the checkpoint, is to physically separate Palestinians from Israelis at those junctions where they could possibly run into each other. Their roads are physically separated by 10 metere high concrete walls. The movement on Palestinian roads comes to a complete halt if there is a settler car that's going to cross the junction. And you feel the concept of separation, when you get to the checkpoint, when you look at this wall and you see an empty road on the other side or a single settler car driving past, and then the row of Palestinian cars comes to a complete stop until the settler passes through. |
| 10:09:02:00 | Fade up. Night shot. Call to prayer. |
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| 10:09:17:00 | Ghassan in dark.
Fade to black. | I'm standing on the roof of my uncle's house and three kilometres in that direction is the hamlet where my family came from, and... which is now Israeli proper, it's inside the Green Line. And a couple of times as a child when we came to visit my father took me there, to see the school that my grandfather built for his family, so that his kids could have an education, and what's left is the remnants of this school, the remnants of my grandparents' house, and a cemetery that the Israelis built for Israeli soldiers killed in 1948, some of whom were built occupying our home. And obscurely enough and surreally enough, an ostrich farm, run by a Roumanian Jew. |
| 10:10:30 | Tracking shot.
Tracking shots. Kids in refugee camp. Man with fire on street.
Women on street.
Ghassan walks into clinic. Lady in clinic with man at desk. | One of the things you get sucked into when you're in Gaza is waiting. Everybody seems to be waiting for something. One the grander scale people have been waiting for a solution. They've been waiting since 1948 to go back to the villages that they were driven out of. They've also been waiting for a Palestinian state. Many people have been waiting for loved ones to come out of Israeli prisons. But on a smaller scale, people are waiting for the next air-raid, or on when the checkpoints are going to happen. |
| 10:11:28:00 | WS people in clinic.
Ghassan at desk. | We're waiting because we've had to cancel this clinic twice before, and the checkpoint was closed yesterday ‘til 3.30, 4 o'clock. So a lot of patients I think assume that we didn't manage to make it from Ghazzeh (Gaza) and that's why of the thirty that registered, only two have come. |
| 10:11:54:00 | WS destroyed house. Ghassan at desk. | The reason I insist on coming to Rafah despite the fact that I don't know when I'm gonna operate on these people is so that the checkpoint isn't allowed to defeat us, as health professionals and as Palestinians and as human beings. |
| 10:12:21:00
10:13:00:00 | WS destroyed house with man walking past.
WS demolished house. Fade to black. | It's frustrating, it's very frustrating, it's sad. And you're just... I mean I don't know, but.. despair very quickly creeps in. I don't feel I'm making any difference. These people are going to get shot, they're going to be shot at again, their houses are going to be demolished, and what we do is we treat the symptom. The disease is the occupation. |
| 10:13:01:00 | Fade up Ghassan in car. He gets out. Walks towards wall. Looks over. |
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| 10:13:40:00
10:13:59:00 10:14:04:00
10:14:17:00 | MS Ghassan.
Walks away. Looks up. Fade to black.
| This is my grandmother's house. She died around fifteen years ago and the house was blocked up. I used to come here as a kid, to visit her. Christine: ‘How does it feel to be here?' -It drives home that those you leave behind never stay there forever, and that the time you spend away from them is lost time, and can never be recovered. |
| 10:14:41:00 | Fade up General view on Gaza street with kids. |
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| 10:14:54:00 | Tracking shot from car. Graffiti. Ghassan in car.
Road shots.
| We're going to see a little girl who was shot with a heavy machine-gun bullet while standing outside her school door, school gate. And the father came to me in the clinic, and the reason he came on his own is because the child is in plaster, she would need like a taxi to bring her to the clinic, and he didn't have enough money to bring her. |
| 10:15:32:00 | Ghassan from back. | ‘Assalamo aleykom'. |
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10:16:05:00
10:16:08:00
| WS empty room. Ghassan on his knees. CS girl. Father by her side. CU girl (Tahrir) | Arabic. Subtitle: Move your toes and resist the pressure. -Is the bullet still inside her leg? -They took it out.
She had just come out of school, and she heard shooting, the sound of gun-fire coming from towards the settlement, and everybody started running, and she started running, and suddenly she felt her leg give way, and she fell on the ground.
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| 10:16:30:00 | CU Tahrir's father looks down. MS Tahrir lying on floor. | Arabic. Subtitle: I didn't feel anything when I fell and then I saw blood. And there was nobody around. (10:16:45:00) Then the man from the shop saw me and carried me to the hospital. |
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10:17:21:00 | CU Tahrir.
CU Tahrir.
Ghassan walks out. | Ghassan asks, in Arabic. Subtitles: -How do you feel now? -I'm fine. -Are you afraid? -No, I'm not afraid. -Are you angry? -No. |
| 10:17:31:00
10:18:08:00 | Ghassan walks out, fade to white.
Fade up black and white shots of militiamen on street. | I remember watching Israeli tanks attack Jabalya camp, in the middle of the night, being faced by young men with AK47s and machine-guns. I remember thinking to myself, they must know that there is absolutely nothing they can do to dent this awesome military machine. These resistance men all lived locally. They were all local men who had day-jobs, who now feel that their refugee camp, or the area that they lived in was under attack by the Israelis, and that's why they took up arms. |
| 10:18:27:00 | Fade up WS armed masked men in room. Super: Khan Younis Refugee camp. Fade to black. |
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| 10:18:29:00
10:18:43:00
10:18:57:00 | Masked man with cigarette and machine-gun. | Arabic. Subtitle: Our factions are spread out all over the neighbourhoods. Yes, in every neighbourhood a faction. We have men on the frontline when the Israeli assassination squads and commandos attack. And because they come to us we have to face them in our own neighbourhoods. |
| 10:19:05:00
10:19:32:00 | Second militant. | We are under occupation. And this occupation is a violation of our rights, our land, and our people. And this is an injustice, and it is humiliating, it's an affront to our dignity, our humanity, our possessions. All of us have suffered bombings, shelling, gun-fire, tank-fire, rockets, air-raids and incursions. All of us. Civilian and military. |
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10:20:05:00 | Third militant. | Let me add that we are 3km away from the Israeli settlement. We get fired on. With bullets, and rockets. The settlements are fortresses for the Israeli army. |
| 10:20:14:00
10:21:00:00 | Fourth militant. | We get our weapons from two sources. Our first source is inside Israel, from contacts we have. This one for example, is Israeli. They use it, and we got it from them. Another source is the borders. We have secret channels. |
| 10:21:00:00
10:21:26:00 | Second militant (again)
WS militants together in room. Fade to black. | For our children to grow up well and have a better life than we had we must end this occupation, for us and for them, for our children and Israeli children, to be well and have better lives than we had. |
| 10:21:28:00 10:21:34:00 | Fade up WS of refugee camp. Fade to black. |
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| 10:21:35:00 | Mohammad on operating table, nurses wheeling him. |
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| 10:21:44:00
10:21:58:00 | MS Ghassan in op theatre with graft-knife.
Mohammad's arm. Nurses, doctor, Mohammad. Preparing for op. Operation in course. Various shots. Ghassan operating. | OK this is the Watson-Braithwaite graft-knife. We ended up having to delay this operation for over two weeks because the Israelis are preventing clearance of any goods destined to Palestinian areas. |
| 10:22:38:00
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10:23:09:00 | Ghassan gets handed something. | We've just, Dr Khalil has just taken this rod out of his chest. Christine: -What is it? -It's a piece of metal. It's part of the casing of the missile. It's a screw actually. It was between the ribs and the skin. If it'd gone into his lungs it would have done him some serious damage. |
| 10:23:18:00
10:23:42:00 10:23:49:00 | MS Ghassan stitching up leg.
Fade to black. | When I operated on patients in Gaza, I was filled with an overwhelming sense that these bodies were violated for political ends by something that was inhuman, and was designed to dehumanise their bodies. |
| 10:23:50:00
10:23:57 10:24:14:00 10:24:29:00
10:24:42:00 | Fade up CU Mohammad with tubes on table, nurses attending. Various shots nurses. CU nurse.
Other nurrse. |
Arabic: Subtitles: Breathe breathe breathe! Open your mouth! Welcome back Mohammad. Your operation is over and you are well. Welcome back. Open your eyes Mohammad. Welcome back. That's it. Speak again. |
| 10:25:06:00
10:25:19:00 | Ghassan into elevator. In elevator.
Walks out into corridor. Through door. Into the night. |
Christine: -How do you feel? -Whacked. Absolutely whacked.
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| 10:26:00:00
10:26:30:00 | Fade to black. Sound of footsteps. END CREDITS. |
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