I saw a fantastic documentary last night on the Israel/Palestine conflict called "Death in Gaza." The documentary was originally planned to be a movie where the director talked to kids on both sides of the conflict. What it turned out being was so much more.

As I watched these kids living in abject poverty as Israeli tanks bulldozed house after house, it became evident to me that it's a conflict that doesn't really have an end right now. There is so much hatred on both sides, that I don't see an end to the conflict anytime soon. Especially with people like Arafat and Sharon continuing to lead their people in the manner that they are.

The Israeli/Palestinian conflict has always been a conflict that I've never really understood. I know that there is hatred between many people of the two religions, but I've never really been able to quite wrap my finger around why they can't just co-inhabit the same land, even though they worship different gods.

"Death in Gaza" only made my confusion more severe as I saw children and adults in Gaza (many of them directly involved in the intifada) expressed their confusion as well. One "terrorist" interviewed expressed his frustration that the young men in the Gaza strip felt the need to take up arms against an oppressive force, when all they ever really wanted was to go to school and become better people.

What I really took from the movie however is that the line between terrorist and freedom fighter is sometimes blurred. Why do we consider it terrorism when someone blows up a bus, yet not consider it terrorism when an Israeli tank rolls into the Gaza strip shooting pretty much anything that moves? Aren't they both equally heinous? Don't they both only serve to fan the flames of hatred? Don't they both produce "terror?"

One reason why I've never really understood the Israel/Palestine conflict is that the sides seem so lopsided and uneven. How can you have this thriving city miles away from a city that is by all accounts a city in ruins? How can you have this government that has armored tanks and an organized military go up against this rag tag group of people with make shift bombs and throwing rocks? And how could the United States in good conscience support one side over another?

The director of this movie set out to chronicle the future of this conflict by interviewing the children of both sides. That was their intention anyway. I will not give away what happens because the end of the movie is just way to powerful. I could not do it justice. If you have HBO or know someone who does, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE go watch this movie. It may be one of the most engrossing movies I've seen in a long time.

matt out