'Forbidden Childhood’ strives to spread a ‘culture of nonviolence'

Jordan, August 9, 2009, (Pal Telegraph) - Former soldier in the Israeli army Elik Elhanan regrets the moment his mother was "happy and proud" when he joined the military service in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Elhanan is now a spokesperson for the "Combatants for Peace" movement, which aims to "end the cycle of violence, the bloodshed and the [Israeli] occupation".

His experience, along with those of other Palestinian activists, is part of the Italian filmmaker Barbara Cupisti's 2008 documentary titled, "Forbidden Childhood", which was screened at the Royal Film Commission last week.

The film sheds light on the "suffering" of Palestinian children living under Israeli occupation, and endure Israeli settlers' persecution in the Palestinian territories.

In the movie, Elhanan says he was "disappointed" as his mother asked him not to join the army in the beginning. But she ended up being "proud" when he did.

The activist says he has grown to prefer a "nonviolent" way in addressing the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, rather than fighting, which has been taking place in the region since Israel was established on the ruins of Palestine in 1948.

"In Israel, mothers should not support their kids to become battle killers," Elhanan says in the documentary, adding that by encouraging them to join the military, mothers "sacrifice" their children.

"We did not feel that we are protecting anyone in the occupied territories," he noted, underscoring the "hard way" of living which Palestinian children are enduring under occupation.

Meanwhile, Palestinian ex-fighter Ali Abu Awwad had a different experience. His mother, a member of the Fateh movement, was captured by the Israelis when he was 10 years old.

During the second Intifada in 2000, Israeli soldiers captured Abu Awwad in an attempt to get information on his mother's activity.

Now, the 31-year-old activist is a leading member of Al Tariq (the road), a pacifist movement which seeks to reach a peaceful solution to the conflict.

As part of his attempts to achieve the movement's goal and spread a "culture of nonviolence" in the war-stricken region, Abu Awwad appears in the film talking to Zakaria Zubaidi, a young man from the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank.

For seven years, Zubaidi was a leader in the Fateh-affiliated Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

Zubaidi's life as a fighter against the occupation started in 1989, when he was shot in the leg by Israeli soldiers while on his way home from school.

"People then overrated me and made a hero out of me," he says in the movie, adding that he started to feel himself an adult from that time.

At the age of 14, Zubaidi was arrested by the Israelis, which made him feel like a "politician", he noted, adding that his story is told by many children in the Palestinian territories.

"Today, Palestinian children are not afraid of anything, they have no fear because they have lost their childhood," Zubaidi tells Abu Awwad in the 90-minute film, which shows movie segments