Abstract
The War Around Us is an absorbing, first-hand account of two Al Jazeera reporters who found themselves in the middle of the danger and devastation during the three-week Israeli bombing campaign in the Gaza Strip in late 2008 through early 2009. Although the events depicted are several years old, the film does not feel outdated or irrelevant. First, the conflict around which the film is based continues. Second, the theme of journalists working and surviving in a war zone is not bounded by time or location.
The story is told through the experiences of Ayman Mohyeldin, a veteran war correspondent now with NBC News, and Sherine Tadros (now with Sky News in Britain), for whom this would be her first experience in a conflict zone. At the beginning of the film, we learn that her trip to Gaza was intended to be a very short assignment for Tadros—possibly just a day or two—but the tone and tenor of it changed dramatically when concentrated Israeli airstrikes began while she and Mohyeldin were having coffee on a Saturday morning shortly after her arrival. It would become what the film says was the “single bloodiest day in Palestine since 1948,” and the Al Jazeera team seemed to be the only television crew there to cover it.
The filmmakers effectively use numerous techniques to give the audience a feeling of experiencing the fear and chaos of the situation. There are numerous scenes in which we see and hear—almost feel—the impact of bombs going off, sometimes in the distance and sometimes uncomfortably close to the cameras and crew. We see powerful images of widespread devastation, with extended scenes of buildings severely damaged or reduced to rubble. In the rubble, we see bodies of victims, and we hear the cries of the severely injured.
The film also presents compelling narratives depicting the human toll of the bombardment: the intense grief of a father as he finds his young daughter dead; the heart-wrenching interviews with children who survived attacks that killed their entire families; the excruciating aftermath of bombs that hit a United Nations compound, including a school and a storage building for civilian relief supplies; the agonizingly long lines as thousands of people wait for hours just to get bread. The film shows the live shots from the first night of the bombing campaign; the setting is the main hospital in Gaza, where a makeshift intensive care unit has been constructed in the orthopedic wing. The doctor describes a desperate situation, with more than 210 cases in 15 minutes.
For classroom use, one of the most beneficial aspects of the film is the portrayal of life as a journalist in a war zone, facing danger and difficult working conditions with extremely long hours and very little sleep. We see Mohyeldin and Tadros walking through the devastation wearing helmets and bulky flak jackets marked “Press,” and we watch as their live shots are interrupted by nearby explosions. Both journalists address the emotional and personal toll of working under such conditions, relating phone conversations with loved ones who were understandably frightened for their safety. Tadros relates how hungry she was at the end of the first day; yet Mohyeldin’s insistence to return to their office instead of stopping for food likely saved their lives after a bomb destroyed the falafel stand next to the hospital they had just left. It is one of the moments that cement the friendship between the two journalists, despite the tensions that could be expected between a seemingly hardened veteran (Mohyeldin) and a more emotional neophyte (Tadros).
The film evokes a powerful visceral account of journalists persevering under trying conditions. It is so intense, the scenes so gripping, that it was a shock at the end to realize that all the action had taken place in the course of just 24 days.
Inevitably as with many aspects of the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict, there is a political dimension to any account such as this one. The War Around Us, with reporters embedded in Gaza, is told largely from a Palestinian viewpoint and focuses on the impact of the conflict on the civilian population. Some viewers may find it objectionable that there is not more balance with the Israeli perspective. The film does briefly show rockets being fired from Gaza into Israel but reports that those attacks resulted in minor damage and three Israelis killed at the same time that there were more than 800 deaths in Gaza.
In addition to reporting classes, this film could be a beneficial addition for media studies courses, particularly those focused on international dimensions of news and conflict coverage. Besides the main feature, which runs 75 min, the DVD includes six short, informative extra features from the Media Education Foundation, including a history of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.
One minor criticism of the film: there are numerous typographical errors in the captions and on-screen graphics. The dialogue is mostly in English, though, and it would be possible to watch and understand most everything without the caption feature enabled.
Overall, the film provides persuasive testament to the power of journalism in telling difficult stories in challenging situations. Mohyeldin expresses frustration at being the only reporting crew in Gaza at the time, which for him underscores the importance of journalists to witness what was happening: “If we don’t tell the story, nobody else will.” The message is an important one with the potential to add to students’ understanding of an ongoing conflict, as well as the role journalists can play in spreading awareness and public education on complicated topics. The need for such awareness is poignantly underscored in an audio recording of a conversation Mohyeldin has with a cab driver played at the very end of the film. In it, the cabbie opines that the Palestinians “tried to invade the Jewish land from their land . . . Palestine, I guess.” This conversation is played after the ending credits, so it is worth sitting through them to hear the exchange.