Educational Media Reviews Online

The enclave known as the Gaza Strip has been occupied by Israel since 1967, when it took control from Egypt after the Six Day War. Any resistance to Israeli occupation was easily controlled until 1987, when the first intifada brought fighting that did not cease until the Oslo peace agreement was signed in 1993. But in October 2000, a second intifada erupted, and things are still tense. Close, Closed, Closure is a French-Israeli co-production directed by Israeli filmmaker Ram Loevy that looks at life in Gaza.

Loevy also narrates the video, and gives the viewer some statistics about Gaza. The population tripled after the 1948 partitioning of Palestine creating the state of Israel brought a flood of Palestinian refugees into Gaza. The population grows at a rate of 5% a year, one of the highest rates in the world. And 80% of the Gaza population lives on the equivalent of about $2 a day per year.

Gaza residents, Loevy says, “are dependant on the rest of the world’s generosity.” But trucks carrying goods are closely inspected by Israeli soldiers and transport is delayed, sometimes damaging or spoiling the goods. Inspectors wearing white gloves rub their hands over all the containers in trucks. The gloves are then inspected for traces of any explosive material. The contents of Palestinian trucks are loaded into Israeli trucks for further travel into Gaza. The extraordinary measures were put into place after a truck bomb exploded in 1996, and Palestinians in Gaza feel they are being continually punished for this.

Some Palestinians do have jobs in Israel, but travel from Gaza can be troublesome. The buses that many workers depend on to go to Israel were stopped after a Palestinian bus driver in February 2001 deliberately ran into a crowd, killing eight and wounding twenty, most of them soldiers. When Israeli restrictions close off job opportunities, unemployment in Gaza can reach 60%.

Loevy gives Palestinians in Gaza ample time to speak about their situation. He features a family whose son lost his legs because the family could not get to an Israeli hospital in time to prevent amputation. The mother had been jailed previously for throwing a Molotov Cocktail, so the entire family was prohibited entry.

Israelis are heard from much less often. Loevy does show confrontations between Israelis protesting the occupation of Gaza and those who support the action. And he interviews a resident of the Israeli settlements in Gaza that have caused so much controversy and stymied a peace agreement.

This video is recommended for its personal look at Gaza residents, but the inclusion of material about the Israeli peace activists and the settler was deserving of a fuller treatment. Loevy talks in the film about the dilemma of a filmmaker when footage of even the simplest actions is weighed down by loaded socio-political interpretations, but the viewer needs more information and examples about this to appreciate his situation. One 53-minute video can’t really address all the facets he brings out.