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Jerusalem's Children

"Promises," a documentary airing Tuesday on Detroit Public Television, looks through the eyes of seven
Israeli and Palestinian children at the historically complex struggle they will one day inherit.

AUDREY BECKER

Special to the Jewish News

I

n April 1995, Justine Shapiro, co-writer and
host of the Discovery Channel's Lonely Planet
adventure series, went to Jerusalem to prepare
for a travel piece. While there, she found herself
compelled by the highly charged conflict between
Palestinians and Israelis.
She soon teamed up with friend B.Z. Goldberg —
who had been both an international journalist and a
conflict resolution consultant — and with Carlos
Bolado, noted Mexican filmmaker, whose work as edi-
tor on Like Water for Chocolate had brought him wide-
spread acclaim.
The three began working on a project that was to
become Promises, an award-winning,
controversial documentary about the
Middle East told from the point of
view of seven Israeli and Palestinian
children.
The resulting film, which will air on
Detroit Public Television Tuesday;
Dec. 18, is a tremendously moving
achievement. All of the children in
Promises define themselves by their
position in relation to the Israeli-
Palestinian struggle — from 13-year-
old Shlomo, a rabbi-in-training, to
Sanabel, refugee and daughter of a
journalist father who was held in an
Israeli jail without trial for two years.
With remarkable candor, these chil-
dren discuss war, hatred, revenge, her-
itage and hostility. Geographically
they live only minutes away from one
another, but they are forcefully sepa-
rated by culture and politics, by
checkpoints and laws, by rocks and
rifles.
When they spontaneously choose a
rare and courageous face-to-face con-
frontation, a meeting results that has
all the intensity, volatility and significance of an inter-
national summit.
The Jewish News recently spoke with directors/pro-

ducers Justine Shapiro and B.Z. Goldberg about their
experiences in making this challenging film.

JN: How and when did the idea for this project first
come about for you?
JS: I had been wanting to make my own documentary
for some time. In 1995,1 found myself in Israel with
young Israelis and young Palestinians. I asked the
Israelis if they had any Palestinian friends. They were
utterly amazed that I would even pose the question. It
was as if I had asked them if they had eaten a rat for
breakfast. They were appalled and disgusted by the
thought
On the same trip, I spent some time in the West
Bank with some young girls from Hebron, and had a
similar experience with them. When I told one of the

.

JN: What made you choose to look, in
particular, at children's experiences in
and reactions to the Middle East strug-
gle?
JS: I hadn't seen anything about the
Middle East from the point of view of
children. When we went there in '95,
we were amazed with how articulate —
shockingly articulate — and funny and
personable and human these kids were
at such a young age.
We decided to make a film that was
something of a character study, rather
than a political film. There were so
many compelling stories and so many
compelling kids.

Filmmakers B.Z. Goldberg, Justine Shapiro and Carlos
Bolado: "I wanted to introduce audiences to the people
who were opening up my mind and my heart," says
Shapiro.

The drawing on page 75 comes from the book Turbulent Times, Prophetic Dreams: Art from Israeli and
Palestinian Children (Devora Publishing; 2000) by Harold S. Koplewicz, M.D., founder and director of
the New York University Child Study Center. The children who made these drawings offer a glimpse
into how and what children subjected to conflict are thinking.
Pictured is "Equality," by 11-year-old Israeli Ilan. He writes: "I believe the situation will continue as it is.
The reason there will be no peace is that neither Israelis nor Palestinians are willing to give in and prefer
to remain stubborn. We attack them and they attack us. I feel terrible when people say the Palestinians
are bad. It is not right that they kill us and it is not right that we kill them: When will it stop?"

12/14
2001

78

girls that I was Jewish, tears literally welled in her eyes.
An utter look of confusion crossed her face. I was the
first Jew she had ever spoken to. And she was really
perplexed because I wasn't the enemy she had grown
up believing Jews to be.
BZG: I started thinking about the•project when I was a
journalist. I was working for foreign news companies
covering the Intifada, [Palestinian uprising]. I can trace
my interest in the project back to a day when I noticed
a group of kids playing their local version of cops and
robbers in Gaza.
Half of them were playing the role of "Israelis" and
half of them were "Palestinians." And the "Israelis"
would shoot the "Palestinians" with wooden guns and
the "Palestinians" would throw rocks at the "Israelis."
I never thought of turning around the TV camera,
because [in contrast to] the news, this
was just an interesting anecdote to talk
about over dinner. But the image stayed
with me for a long time.

JN: Justine, we don't get to see you
interact with the kids. But B.Z. is an
important subject in the film. How did
that come about?
JS: B.Z. was engaging with the kids in a
really beautiful way, and it seemed silly to pretend it
wasn't happening. And we didn't know that the kids
were going to end up meeting each other. It wasn't
something we arranged. The fact that it happened was
wonderful.

JN: You knew going in to the film that it was going
to be challenging. Were there any challenges that you
hadn't anticipated?
BZG: We didn't know that it was going to be as chal-
lenging as it was to raise money.

JN: Did potential sources of funding think the film
was too politically fraught?

