A LETTER TO AN ISRAELI FRIEND (Filmmaker) IN LA. I cant imagine what it is like for you in LA, far from your family and friends in Israel, threatened daily by Hamas rockets. My throat tightens at the thought. I love my Israeli friends. I love my Palestinian friends too. My throat also tightens at the thought of the terror that Izzeldin Abuelaishs family (author of I Shall not Hate) has to live with at this time. Switching the lens to my own experience, closer to home, I even now love (and it has taken almost 40 years) my German friends notwithstanding the death and destruction both sides of my family sustained between 1939 and 1945, and which still messes up my daily life (intergenerational volcanic anger as you know well). Over time, Ive just had to accept that we all going to have to share the European land that we (French and English) initially would have preferred to have for ourselves. As a Franco-Brit, I can say that our humour is FAR more sophisticated and our food and beer just infinitely superior to thigh-slapping sauerkraut in Frankfurt gardens. Everybody knows that. Maybe the cars that I have had, and that actually worked are made in Munich but we wont mention that too loud. With that silly digression aside, I dont think there is any other viable choice apart from sharing. Ive experienced the fighting (my dead Uncle in 1940) and every time I see my mothers sadness, I see the scared little girl who lived under the bombs in Eastern Paris in 1944. Its all shit. And it sticks for awfully long time. Generations actually. Until we decide to do different. So now, I have decided to try to give up anger. I am going to try to forgive. Daily. Its bloody hard. But as the little bits of sharing enter my life, I am feeling better: I actually derived real pleasure from seeing the ego-less German team win the world cup. I cheered for the Sauerkraut munchers! Who knew? I say: More football on shared land, less rockets and tanks in an attempt to claim what can never be exclusively ours, or anybody elses.
Posted on: Wed, 23 Jul 2014 10:19:36 +0000
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