John Pilger: The War You Don’t See

December 14th, 2010 • Film & Documentary, News
Tags: assange, documentary, ITV, john pilger, journalism, rageh omaar, the guardian, The War You Don't See, war, Wikileaks

UPDATE #2: The War You Don’t See is now on YouTube…

UPDATE #1: UK readers can watch The War You Don’t See on the ITV website.

The documentary is a powerful indictment of the media’s failure over Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel/Palestine and other conflicts. Some, including Rageh Omaar (then-BBC, now-AJE), admit to as much.

A MUST SEE!

The documentary is playing at the Regal Picturehouse in Henley and other venues around the country – we can not recommend this film highly enough!

Here’s the section on Palestine, Israeli propaganda and the Gaza Flotilla (includes interviews with Greg Philo):

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John Pilger‘s new documentary, The War You Don’t See, will be shown on ITV this evening, Tuesday December 14th, 2010 at 10.35pm.

This powerful film exposes the media’s complicity in war. Featuring interviews with  senior figures at major UK and US broadcasters and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (before his arrest). From ITV Press Office:

In this new documentary John Pilger, the winner of journalism’s top awards for both press and broadcasting, including academy awards in the UK and US, questions the role of the media in war. In The War You Don’t See, Pilger, himself a renowned correspondent, asks whether mainstream news has become an integral part of war-making.

Focusing on the current conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, Pilger reflects on the history of the relationship between the media and government in times of conflict stretching back to World War I and explores the impact on the information fed to the public of the modern day practice of public relations in the guise of ‘embedding’ journalists with the military.

Featuring interviews with senior figures at major UK broadcasters, the BBC and ITV, and high profile journalists on both sides of the Atlantic, including Rageh Omaar and Dan Rather, the film investigates the reporting of government claims that Iraq harboured weapons of mass destruction.

Read more at ITV.com >>>

In a rare move, the documentary is also playing at the Regal Picturehouse in Henley and other venues around the country.

• Interviews: New Internationalist interview & Radio 4 Today programme
• Read Pilger’s Guardian article: Why are wars not being reported honestly? and the accompanying video clips from the film.

In the Wake of War: Gaza One Year On

February 4th, 2010 • Awareness, Film & Documentary, News
Tags: film, gaza, map, war

from Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP)

We are pleased to present our first short film, In the Wake of War: Gaza One Year On

This film is based on interviews and filming we did in December in Gaza, in the run up to the anniversary of Operation Cast Lead. In the Wake of War is testimony-based, telling but some of the stories of survival, tragedy, and ongoing hardship in Gaza – with no effective action to end the blockade, no reconstruction, no accountability.

This film is the first in a series of short films which we will release over the course of 2010.  The next film, focusing on the ongoing blockade of Gaza, will be released in February.

Gaza: War on Words

December 29th, 2009 • Awareness, Film & Documentary, News
Tags: al jazeera, gaza, media, war, words

UPDATE It looks like AJE removed the video from YouTube, here’s the promo until it returns…

from AJE…

A year on from Israel’s offensive in Gaza, another battle is still being played out. The war of words between Israel and opponents of last year’s war continues, with the latest flare up centred on the UN’s Goldstone report. But while everyone is busy apportioning blame, there is little chance of developments to the peace process and hopes for justice are fading. Gaza: The War of Words explores the various claims and counter-claims against Israel and Hamas that have been made in the past year and looks at the international community’s rol in that war of words.

Gaza Amputee Girl Struggles to Live on after War

December 24th, 2009 • News
Tags: amputee, gaza, injury, war

by Fares Akram @ China’s Xinhua:

Jamila Al Habbash

GAZA, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) — Every morning, Jamila Al Habbash gets up early to get dressed for school, puts on her artificial limbs and walks to school on crutches.

The 15-year-old girl lost her legs a year ago, when an unmanned Israeli drone dropped a missile at the roof of her house in eastern Gaza city. The rocket also killed her sister and a cousin when they were playing.

Jamila’s father, Mohammed al Habash, the first eyewitness, said the first thing he saw was Jamila with no legs. “It was as a massacre, the kids’ limbs scattered everywhere on the roof. I saw Jamila’s left leg thrown away,” he said as he tried to hold back his tears.

An ambulance came immediately and took Jamila to Hospital. In the hospital, Jamila underwent an operation after another. The doctors tried every means to save her legs, but failed.

When Jamila woke up in the hospital, she threw off the blanket and discovered that her legs have gone. “I was so overwhelmed. The first sentence I said was “where are my legs?”

“My life won’t stop as I lost my legs,” said Jamila, giving an innocent smile. “I go to school and play sometimes. It’s difficult now, but I can manage.”

“I have decided from first moment not to surrender to despair because I knew it will kill me,” she said. “Every start is always painful, but I came over the difficult stage.”

The missile hit Jamila’s house during Israel’s three-week military operation in the coastal Strip where 1.5 million people live. When the war ended on Jan. 18, 2009, 1,410 Palestinians had been killed, including 355 under the age of 18, according to the Gaza-based al Mezan center for Human Rights.

Jamila traveled to Saudi Arabia in January to receive proper medical treatment since Gaza hospitals are not qualified enough to deal with cases like Jamila’s, crediting an Israeli-Egyptian blockade since 2007. There, she was given artificial limbs, but they didn’t fit well. Two months ago, Jamila flew to Slovenia where she got better plastic limbs.

“The new ones are too much better,” she said as she practiced on parallel bars in the only artificial limb center in Gaza.

Director of the center, Hazem Al Shawwa, said the center has helped 76 limbless patients and 174 are still waiting for artificial limbs.

Training at the center, Jamila is making progress fast and believes she “will not use the crutches soon.”

“I will rely on myself. No one will help me as my family and friends do now. And I will be a journalist,” She smiled, winking.

Her school is 100 meters away from her house. Jamila used to make it to school in five minutes, but now, with the artificial legs and crutches, it takes her 20 minutes.

“It takes time to go to school and of course it is wearisome, but I do it. It’s a challenge,” she proudly said.

In addition to dreaming in being a journalist “and write about our sufferings as Palestinians,” Jamila even thinks of being a mother and having babies.

“For those who thought I lost everything, I tell them I did not lose hope and my faith in God,” Jamila added.