Soccer Dad: Pictures for posterity

July 1, 2007

Pictures for posterity

To read the NY Times review of HBO's Hothouse, you'd think that the documentary is somehow ambivalent about the topic of the conflict between Israel and the Palesitnians. Adorned with a publicity shot of Ahlam Tamimi, it focuses little on the nature of those prisoners whom the documentary is about. Though it tells how Tamimi

recalls the day she dropped a suicide bomber off at his target, then coolly went on television to report on the resulting bombing.

the second paragraph is telling of the reviewer's perspective

Mr. Dotan, who grew up in Israel, is so successful at revealing the world inside the prisons, where about 10,000 Palestinians are held, that by the end of �Hot House� you may feel more than a little annoyance at the two sides in this endless conflict. These enemies know each other absurdly well. They learn from each other, and talk openly about doing so. Yet they can�t seem to break the cycle: a cat and mouse addicted to their own game.

But HBO in its own publicity seems a little less ambiguous

Dotan interviews inmates who are committed to negotiations as well as others who are shockingly unrepentant about their involvement in planning suicide bombings. The cold-blooded testimony of a female Hamas leader, proudly serving 16 life sentences for blowing up a pizzeria in Jerusalem, is perhaps the most chilling.

A review at Zionism on the Web similarly notes that allowing the prisoners to talk for the themselves makes for some very revealing moments.

Dotan remained a largely invisible force in the film�s physics. At one point, in his interview with a major Hamas leader, he asks about the party�s willingness to accept the 1967 borders as viable boundaries. Dotan reminds the Hamas leader that he has he has been quoted as retracting that acceptance. The leader acknowledges that he has changed his mind, cackles for several chilling moments, and then after his ominous laughter subsides, he pauses and says something to the effect of, �in the future we will see what will be.�

Then, towards the end of the film, there is an interview with a female Hamas prisoner that is also quite revealing. The woman, a Palestinian television news anchor at the time, drove a suicide bomber to Yaffa Street in Jerusalem in August of 2001, where he carried out a horrendous bombing in a crowded Sbarro Pizzaria at lunchtime. Sixteen people were killed in the attack, and many more wounded. The prisoner�s testimony was eerie for its cold-blooded detachment. A vacuous smile rarely left her face. When Dotan quietly asked her if she knew how many children had been killed, she volunteered that she thought the number was three. He corrected her, noting that the actual number was eight. She seemed perversely delighted to hear this, and smiled again, saying, �really?�

I'd have to say I still have misgivings about the project. The complaint at This Ongoing War holds sway.

Neither the New York Times nor HBO are likely to give even a moment's attention to the victims of the barbarians who destroyed the Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem and the lives of so many victims. So we would be grateful if you would pass along this link to some pictures of our daughter whose name was Malki. She was unable to reach her twenties - Hamas saw to that.

Though she was only fifteen years old when her life was stolen from her and from us, we think Malki was a beautiful young woman, living a beautiful life. We ask your help so that other people - far fewer than the number who will see the New York Times, of course - can know about her. Please ask your friends to look at the pictures - some of the very few we have - of our murdered daughter. They are at http://www.kerenmalki.org/photo.htm

Obviously I think that the NYT is much more guilty than HBO, but the idea that we ought to remember the victims of terror rather than its perpetrators is a strong one.

Similar thoughts: Smooth Stone, Israel Matzav, Deja Vu, Boker Tov Boulder, and Solomonia.

hbo's hothouse, malki roth.