The Taste of Freedom
Eight months of Raving and Protesting
The Israel-Palestine partition separates two starkly different realities, yet they have one thing in common: the quest for freedom. Young Israelis party on the beaches of Tel Aviv for cathartic release, while Palestinians are fighting for the right to live unhindered in their homeland. This striking documentary artistically juxtaposes the euphoria of Israel's rave scene with the desperate Palestinian resistance to occupation, and listens to voices on both sides of the divide as they present their intriguingly divergent perspectives on freedom.
"It can take over you without anything. And let all your senses go free, and you can truly feel freedom." Israeli music producer Omri Hay performs his electronic music on the rave circuit, serving as an energetic vent for many young people in the country. For the secular youth of Israel, open-air dance parties allow them to liberate their minds and be in touch with their own spirituality and that of wider humanity. It also allows them to shake off the stress of daily life, as soldier Or Benbenishty explains: "If you are doing whatever you like and whatever makes you feel good at the weekend, it's the best thing that can happen to you. And when I return back to the army, I come back clean and with fresh full power."
Yet for those constrained to Gaza and the West Bank, this attitude seems incomprehensible, given their lives under occupation. "For me freedom means to see my husband Bassem... For me freedom means that my aunt, who lost her son, could be able to see her other son Saed, who has been 19 years in prison now, before she will pass away. For me freedom means to see my children play with water that is now stolen by the Israelis." Such stark contrasts in daily life drive a wedge into any effort for cross-cultural empathy and reconciliation, especially given the incredibly close geographical proximity of these different worlds.
"One is protesting, and the other is partying while they are at war with each other. It just doesn't make any sense. As if they're living in a different reality." Notwithstanding its various permutations, freedom is a universal element that transcends this most conspicuous of cultural barriers. Yet the liberties that each group pursue only compound the already bleak cultural clash, and cast further doubt against a realistic peaceful coexistence.
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