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Israelis lack compassion for Gazans' suffering

The recent cancellations of screenings of a documentary on Gaza makes it seem that Israelis are incapable of acknowledging the trauma of war when those suffering are Palestinians.
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Following the single screening of the documentary “Shivering in Gaza” at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque July 8, the film's director, Geert van Kesteren, was asked by viewers whether the treatment of trauma victims in the Gaza Strip depicted in the film could also be applied to Israelis traumatized by war. “Shivering in Gaza” documents the visit of Dutch trauma expert Jan Andreae to Gaza following Operation Protective Edge, conducted July-August 2014, and his treatment of Palestinian trauma victims there. The audience reckoned that the same treatment used to relieve the pain of Palestinians might help Israelis cope with their war trauma as well.

According to van Kesteren, this was indeed his intention when he sought to screen “Shivering in Gaza” in the southern town of Sderot, near the Gaza border, whose residents have been living with almost constant shelling from Gaza for the last decade. He wanted to tweak their interest in the treatment offered to the Gazans, and thus, hopefully, help them as well. Instead, the scheduled screening at the Sderot Cinematheque was canceled under pressure from right-wing activists, as was a subsequent planned screening in the southern city of Beersheba. In both cases, the local municipality blocked the screening.

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