Border of Pain

Description: This documentary observes ways Israeli (Jewish and Palestinian) volunteers and professionals assist some West Bank and Gaza Palestinians obtain healthcare services and professional healthcare training despite the barriers and difficulties of the occupation.

We meet a Jewish volunteer that ferries a patient from a Gaza checkpoint to an Israeli hospital. We accompany Jewish and Arab Israeli doctor volunteers in a pop-up clinic in the West Bank. We meet Palestinian doctors and nurses from the West Bank and Gaza interning in Israeli hospitals. An Israeli Arab woman cooks meals for relatives of long-stay Palestinian Authority patients in Israeli hospitals. Their permits confine them strictly to the hospital grounds for stays that can last weeks and months. They are not entitled to hospital meals and depend on the charity others. We visit the office of the Israeli co-ordinator that arranges for Palestinian patients to be treated in Israeli hospitals and who bills their stays to the Palestinian Authority.

Merits: I would have liked to get to know some of these characters better than is possible by the few minutes allotted to each. Nevertheless, in less than an hour we are given an interesting and comprehensive overview of a whole universe of co-operation that occurs despite the occupation’s restrictions on movement. Audiences expecting affirmation that Israeli altruism is a shining example to humanity will find a mixed bag here. Some of the volunteers are Israeli Arabs. The treatment in hospitals is not free and as the closing credits indicate, has been partially withdrawn in line with the Palestinian Authority’s inability to pay. What is even more evident is the tremendous human toll of the occupation to the patients and their families.

Rating: Suitable for all audiences.

Covered Up

Tomorrow’s Gone