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"Viewer discretion is advised," introduces the documentary There is Another Way, to prepare viewers for video footage from bodycams used by Hamas on October 7 and from the Israeli military during excursions. The images, as noted, are "difficult". However, so is the overwhelming psychic pain expressed by those Palestinians and Israelis who have lost loved ones and whose lives have been forever changed by violence in the land.
Director Stephen Apkon has delivered a follow-up documentary to the 2016 "Disturbing the Peace", which examined the beginnings of Combatants for Peace (CFP). This Israeli and Palestinian binational organization seeks to bring together "former enemy combatants".
The group now includes those who have not been in battle but who have committed to the mission of non-violence and examining the narratives that formed an integral part of their upbringing and consciousness. Despite constant challenges, they stretch themselves to connect with "the other", previously the perpetrator of their nightmares, in order to move toward "collective liberation". Nothing would challenge them more than the events of October 7 and its aftermath.
Where to start? The film uses archival material of disparate content with the quote, "Stories rarely have clear beginnings."
Images of the sun over Jerusalem and the separation wall morph into on-the-ground shots of October 7. Some footage is familiar, some isn't. We witness Hamas fighters as they break through protective fencing and barriers, and their elation over what they have achieved. The incursion into Kibbutz Be'eri is shown in graphic detail. The final communication between Yonatan Zeigen and his mother, peace activist Vivian Silver, is shared. Her message, "They are inside the house", is chilling.
A voiceover comments on Israelis and Palestinians. "We find that we actually have something in common. That willingness to kill people we don't know."
Apkon takes the viewer back to when Israeli soldiers who no longer wanted to serve in the Occupied Territories heard that there were Palestinians moving away from armed action as a model for resolution. Featured in the film, along with their personal stories of evolution, are several founding members of Combatants for Peace.
The current Director of CFP is co-founder Sulaiman Khatib. After attacking two IDF soldiers when he was 14 years old, Khatib served a decade in Israeli prisons. While incarcerated, he went on hunger strikes and learned English, Hebrew, and the history of the Jews.
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