Encounter Point: Ali’s Story

Filmmakers: Julia Bacha and Ronit Avni

Ali, a Palestinian veteran of the intifada, went to Saudi Arabia in for medical treatment after an Israeli settler shot him in the leg.

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While there, he learned that his younger brother Yusef had been killed by an Israeli soldier.

Ali had spent years in Israeli prisons for actions like demonstrating against the occupation, throwing stones, and being a member of a political party.

Ali says that he will never forgive the soldier who killed his brother, but that he does not have to love Israelis to make peace with them. He wants to move past the cycle of hatred and revenge.

When Yusef was killed, Ali joined the Bereaved Families Forum to work with Palestinians and Israelis who together advocate nonviolence and reconciliation, to look for a way forward.

Ali braves hatred of the “other” on both sides, and the stigma against those who work with the “enemy” as he spreads his message of nonviolent resistance throughout the Occupied Palestinian
Territories and Israel, speaking with Palestinian militants and those threatened by Israeli settlers.

For more information: http://being.publicradio.org/programs/nomore/ or

http://www.justvision.org/encounterpoint

Encounter Point: Ali’s Story aired from Thursday, November 4, 2010.