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The Promise of Peace
Lonely Planet film host Justine Shapiro makes a documentary
that looks at the Peace Process through the eyes of children
by Melinda Ridgway-Tichelaar
      

Excerpts:

     Justine Shapiro has eaten a little dog.
     That’s what happens when you get paid to travel.
     As one of six regular hosts on Lonely Planet’s television travelogues, Justine has been to Vietnam, Ecuador, China, India, Africa, Benin, Mali, Turkey, Argentina, South Africa, Lesotho, the Czech Republic, Poland and Paris.
     More importantly, the show led her to Israel, where she and collaborator B.Z. Goldberg eventually shot 160 hours of interviews with Israeli and Palestinian children for their upcoming documentary Promises. The film explores the children’s attitudes about the peace process, and about each other.
     This unflinching documentary is not always easy to watch. In one scene, an orthodox Jewish boy named Moishe pontificates on the Arab-Israeli conflict. “The Arabs came and took [this land] away from us! How would you feel if the Arabs came and took your country from you?”
     But at other times, the film is more hopeful, as when three Palestinian boys discuss the possibility of meeting Jewish children. “How could you want to meet Jewish children? They killed your brother!” 12-year-old Faraj asks the others.
     The other kids respond, “They didn’t kill our brother. Israeli soldiers killed our brother. This is the age to meet Jewish children and show them who we are, tell them our story.”
     Soon after, and of his own accord, Faraj asks the filmmakers to call two Jewish kids on their cell phone. “Hello, how are you?” he asks. “Do you have pizza there?”  . . .

 


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