Promises

This documentary film provides a rarely unbiased look at the conflict in the middle east by interviewing the children on both sides. By interviewing children the film maker gets a remarkably candid and honest opinion. The children interviewed include secular Israeli children, religious Israeli children, Israeli arab children and Palestinian children living in the Deheisha refugee camp, providing a well rounded view into the dynamics of the conflict. To me, it's interesting to see how the effects of trauma have shaped the perceptions the children have about each other - essentially assuming that the "other" has the worst intentions in mind.

Perhaps the children have associated the most terrible kind of pain, trauma and sense of loss with their enemy, and perhaps just talking to them brings back these terrible emotions. It seems to me that if peace is going to come there will need to be some sort of meaningful rehabilitation of populations traumatized by war.

After all:

"Flashbacks are not necessarily episodic — that is, the re-experienced memories may not include specific identifying features (such as images and sounds) that were part of the original event or experience. Because there is a strong emotional component to memory as well, flashbacks can occur as a rush of feelings, emotions, and sensations associated with a traumatic event. This is especially true for young children who were lacking the cognitive abilities needed to define and characterize the trauma when they experienced it, but who may, nevertheless, relive all of the emotions associated with the traumatic event. In addition, those adult survivors of childhood trauma who have solely these emotional memories to draw on, also may experience them in flashbacks."

Flashbacks

In fact, if you choose to watch this documentary you will watch one such flashback, brought about when the children meet. I won't tell you where, you'll have to watch the movie and spot it for yourself. It's a great film, enjoy.

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