Martyr Street: or when religion is totally not cool

Just got back from another day of films. Saw White Planet which, despite the name, isn't about white supremacists, but about the Great White North. Great soundtrack, very Inuit sounding; great visuals (Have you ever seen a walrus nursing her young? She hangs in suspended animation under the surface of the water and junior latches on upside down with mom's hind flippers cradling its head. Or narwhals... I thought they were extinct!) There was also footage of glaciers breaking away which was pretty scary.

Movie #2 was Martyr Street which was shot on the only place in Hebron where Jewish settlers live in the heart of a Palestinian neighbourhood. Hebron is a flash point because it was the home of Abraham, the father to both Muslims and Jews. It juxtaposes bits from the bible about Abraham and his two sons, Isaac and Ishmael with interviews with two young women -- one Jewish, one Muslim. These girls are filmed as they grow up across the street from each other without ever speaking or meeting.

When filming began four years ago, there were 400 settlers there and 400 military personnel to protect them. The story that is told in this documentary is one that it claims is hidden from the international media -- it is one of intense hatred and inhumanity toward the Palestinians by the settlers.

Although Jewish military personnel aren't allowed to speak with the media, a soldier who is no longer in the army did speak out as did other Israelis who want Jews out of Hebron.

I will say that I don't know which side should get to be there and, frankly, I don't care. This is an instance where religion is the source of evil. It has spawned generations of hatred resulting in too many deaths to count. An area that was once famous for vineyards is now a wasteland.

And yet, the settlers are happy with this. Staying there is worth everything and anything. It is worth adopting terrorists tactics. It is worth raising children on a battlefield and teaching them to hate blindly. It is worth burying their babies who die from bullet wounds.

This can't be what Abraham had in mind.

Colleen