“Where Olive Trees Weep”: Dr. Gabor Maté & Ashira Darwish on New Film Exploring Trauma in Palestine
Bideoa: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttLqZMSBSuk&t=470s
A new documentary, Where Olive Trees Weep, explores Palestinian loss, trauma and the fight for justice over decades of life under Israeli occupation. We speak with two people featured in the film: Ashira Darwish, a Palestinian journalist and therapist, and Dr. Gabor Maté, an acclaimed Hungarian Canadian physician whose work focuses on addiction and trauma.
“I was only 16 when I was taken,” says Darwish, describing the first time she was beaten and arrested by Israeli soldiers, which motivated her to become a journalist in order to both document and fight against the occupation. “What’s happening in Palestine is devastating, and what’s happening in the West Bank and Gaza has been going on for 75 years.”
Maté, a Holocaust survivor born in Hungary, recounts his own trauma as a child and says “that same horror” is being inflicted on Palestinian children today.
Transkripzioa:
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democracynow.org
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this is democracy Now democracynow.org
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the Warren peace report I’m Amy Goodman
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we turn now to that new film that
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explores the struggle of the Palestinian
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people under Israeli occupation through
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themes of loss trauma and the fight for
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justice it’s called where olive trees
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weep it features people like renowned
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trauma doctor Gabor at Israeli
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journalist airas Palestinian activist
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aimi and Palestinian journalist and
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therapist ashida Darwish this is the
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trailer I heard the stories of the Pains
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of how people were tortured in these
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places I never believed it until I saw
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[Music]
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and when I saw I couldn’t unsee
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it it’s so important for people to
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understand colonization in order to
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understand what’s happening in the world
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and here in Palestine you know it’s
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happening
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now so how does the world completely
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turn the Blind Eye to the Israeli
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continuous vir vience and SE Israel is
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the victim this is the big this is the
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big
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[Music]
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question I would see it and still get
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surprised every single time that how
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could this Soldier just shoot me we’re
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so dehumanized to the point where they
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can come and they can exterminate you
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because to them you’re nothing but a rat
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I’m not pro Palestinian but I’m Pro
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truth and the truth is the Palestinians
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have been oppressed and suppressed and
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murdered and controlled and dispossessed
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for decades that’s just the
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truth there’s no post-traumatic stress
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disorder here cuz the trauma is never
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post
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[Music]
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[Music]
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your brother and your sister being in
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Chains will not make this experience on
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Earth
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acceptable your chains will be still
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held by my chains and unless I am free
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you won’t be free the trailer of the
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film where olive trees weep that
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premieres today that last voice the
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voice of Ashira darsh Palestinian
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journalist and Trauma healer she’s
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joining us from Newton Massachusetts she
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previously worked as a journalist and as
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researcher for the BBC for Human Rights
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Watch and Amnesty International and
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we’re joined by a claimed Canadian
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physician and author Dr Gabor mate who’s
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also featured in the film he is a
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holocaust Survivor uh Order of Canada
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recipient and a Hungarian Canadian
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retired physician known for his work on
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trauma addiction and childhood
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development the internationally
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bestselling author of five books
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published in 40 languages on six
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continents his most recent visit to the
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West Bank was in 2022 when he led a
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healing workshop for Palestinian women
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who’d been imprisoned in Israeli jails
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he’s joining us from provance France um
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we welcome you both to democracy now uh
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I’m wondering how you each got involved
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with this film um and also uh Ashira uh
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as a journalist and a therapist uh your
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response to the latest um footage
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showing young men attacking and
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surrounding a Palestinian journalist um
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named Saif Al kaasi uh attacked on duty
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beaten on the head a video uh harat’s
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journalist near Hassen also said attack
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by a group of Israeli nationalist Youth
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and posted video showing the violent
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scenes what’s going on right now in the
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West Bank which this uh film where olive
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trees weep focuses
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on good morning Amy uh I’m glad to be
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here with you from the shamut land uh
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it’s what’s happening in Palestine is
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devastating and what’s happening in the
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West Bank and Gaza has been going on for
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75 years the what happened to the
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journalists is not something new this
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happens every single day uh it just
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caught the cameras this time we have
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hundreds of journalists incarcerated in
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Israeli prisons and my friends and
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colleagues who were attacked in
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Jerusalem and I know them personally um
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and it’s just horrific to watch them
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getting beaten but this is the reality
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every single March in Jerusalem where
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the Israelis take over the streets and
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they
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harass terrorize the population there
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and they are of course not friendly to
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the journalists because they don’t want
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anyone filming them as they chant death
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to the Arabs and as they attack the
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Palestinians every day on this day for a
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jerusalemite like me I would walk to the
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streets of Jerusalem just to say that we
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are here and this is our right to be
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here and we get attacked and we get
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fought back and we have the Army
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supporting these settlers as they March
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in our streets attacking us and we
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basically get put on um
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lockdown we’re not allowed to walk in
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our streets our shops are all closed
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it’s just basic Terror on this day in
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Jerusalem but to be honest it has been
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like this since before 7 October
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Jerusalem has become a city of ghosts
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armed soldiers have closed down the main
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entrance of Damascus gate our streets
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have
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become death traps uh going to Alam MOS
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is one of the
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most spiritual but also for me as a as a
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as a as a child I grew up next to alaka
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mosque it’s my it’s my playground not
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being able to walk there being a every
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time that we walk is we’re always in
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fear of soldiers that are walking and
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they’re just waiting for you just to
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make a smile at some point if just to be
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caught strip search stood on the walls
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and it’s just becoming more and more
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terrifying to be there in the film
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ashida you describe your own experience
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being beaten and arrested by Israel
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security forces can you describe what
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happened um so on that day my mom woke
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me up I used to uh we used to live at
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that point closer to ramala and she
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wanted me to go to this peaceful protest
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uh sorry when was
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it what year this was in 200000 it was
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in 2001 uh it was at the closure of the
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Orient House in Jerusalem and it was a
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time where we had protests in the West
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Bank most of the time and it was more
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more of clashes and my mother was wanted
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to take me to a protest to show me that
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there is another way of resistance and
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it was a joint protest between Israelis
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Palestinians and Internationals and it
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was a singing protest so in the
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beginning I was like my God mama what do
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you think this is going to do I it’s
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like what is our singing going to do to
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liberate anything or help anyone for
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that matter and I went very like
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skeptical and then when I saw the people
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chanting and I was like oh this is
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Beautiful cuz I love to sing and we
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started singing and I did not even
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imagine like when we’re in protests in
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the in ramala soldiers are far they
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shoot and fire at you you’re lucky you
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get like tear gas if you’re not lucky
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you get a live bullet and there’s
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distance between us and them this one it
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was very close and the soldiers just
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rammed us with horses in the beginning
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and then they put these what they
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call uh Israeli soldiers undercover and
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one of them grabbed me and I thought we
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were doing a human chain but then I
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realized everybody was moving further um
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uh and that was my first experience of
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being held down and attacked by the
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soldiers and I was on the floor and the
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cameras were flashing and they were
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beating me with sticks on my knees
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trying to break my knees and I would
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just remember waking up and closing my
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eyes and just not understanding why the
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cameras are just taking pictures of me
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and um I was only 16 when I was uh taken
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and I knew I was shouting when I got
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into the Jeep and then the other
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activists were like calm down they will
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take you and beat you until I saw a kid
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where they dragged him and they put his
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head into the smacked his head into the
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Jeep and then I was like okay this is
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like not like this
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is this is serious and when we went to
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the police station naive me thinking the
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police I at that point I still didn’t
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really
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realize the levels so I thought the
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police would be better than the soldiers
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and then of course it wasn’t better and
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I was um slapped in the in the police
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station to sign a paper and I basically
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gave away my mother I told them that it
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was my mother’s fault she took me I had
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nothing to do with this and that I would
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never go there on my own and um just so
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I can get out of that wretched place and
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it was the musia it’s one of the most
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horrific places on planet Earth if
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there’s one dream that I have in my life
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is that to turn that place into a museum
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where we
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can just Mark what has been done to
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people in that place um and that was my
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first experience there and then I was
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detained to other times but yeah and
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then can you talk about how that
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experience led to your desire to become
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a journalist and why you believe that
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journalism can play a role in peac
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making so for me it was um it was an
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almost immediate reaction because of the
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cameras I was really upset that the
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cameras were filming me and none of the
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journalists decided to like pick me up
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or help me um and I wanted to do music
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before that was my thing I always wanted
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to chant and sing and uh I used to play
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the Canon and that moment I think a few
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months later I had to register in
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college and I was like I’m going to do
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journalism because I want to do
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journalism differently I want to be the
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journalist who documents and tries to
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help and there’s no such thing as being
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on
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the this whole Western uh theory about
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uh balanced reporting uh if you’re being
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balanced in a situation of genocide then
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you’re complicit in genocide there’s no
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there’s no white and black in this
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there’s journalism is a profession
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that’s supposed to open the eyes of the
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people and so that they they can do
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something to put the governments in in
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on check and of course the situation
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right now is the government’s and the uh
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capitalists basically control the media
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so it’s all one one thing but that was
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that was when I made the decision and um
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yeah I I also paid for it afterwards
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because I was arrested for uh for my
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journalism as well detained the two
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times I want to turn to another clip
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from where olive trees weep that
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features the longtime Israeli journalist
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Amir Hass the daughter of Holocaust
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Survivors harat’s correspondent for the
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occupied Palestinian territories and
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then we hear from our next guest Dr
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Gabor mate the issue is the present day
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ongoing uh setal Colonial project that
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by definition is meant to take the land
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and create a political system that
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excludes the indigenous
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[Music]
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people 200 years ago in the states or
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New Zealand or Brazil it was not
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considered violations it was the norm
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now because Zionism is an anachronistic
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settler Colonial movement the the world
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understands it’s not according to the
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norm but the world accept
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[Music]
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in this Holy Land there’s always been a
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lot of violence and oppression and
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Injustice going back to ancient times
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and then foundation of the state of
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Israel which could only have been
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accomplished by denying the rights of
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the local population so in that sense
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it’s just another Colonial
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project in
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1917 when David bord a British
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foreign minister who the hell he was he
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to promise a foreign land to anybody
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else that’s Dr Gabor mate the acclaimed
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Canadian physician and author Hungarian
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Canadian going back to Hungary uh today
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you’re in uh provance and France Dr mate
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in Normandy world leaders have gathered
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for the 80th anniversary of what’s known
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as D-Day um where more than 150,000
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Allied troops forged to beach head for
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the liberation of Europe from Adolf
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Hitler’s Nazis you yourself had your
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experience in the Holocaust fled from
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Hungary can you talk about how that
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connects to your deep concerns about
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what’s happening in
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Palestine first of all thanks for having
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me back on your program Amy and thanks
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for your coverage of this issue over the
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past months the um there was a study
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done in 2005
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reporting many studies done on the
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mental health of Palestinian
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children and a large percentage of them
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long before Hamas became the ruling um
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government in Gaza a large potential of
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Palestinian and gazan children were
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suffering of post traumatic stress
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disorder um which included um nightmares
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aggression towards the parents bed
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wedding now I was my bed till I was 13
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years of age because I was born the same
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year that dday happened I was born in
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January um as a Jewish infant under Nazi
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occupation and bombings and all the
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stress and
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Trauma how could I not relate to the
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experience and my mother took me to a
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psychologist when I was eight or nine
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years old for the bed wedding and I
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remember what the psychologist said she
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said Madam she says if bed wedding is
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the only symptom this kid has you’re
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very fortunate indeed well it wasn’t the
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only symptom that I had and if you look
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at the studies of us and children
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published in
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2005 again long before heras took over
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if anybody thinks history began on
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October the 7th they should read that
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study in the Journal of world
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Psychiatry um the most prevalent of
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exposure of traumas were witnessing
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funerals witnessing shooting seeing
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injured the dead strangers or family
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member being killed or injured and a
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large percentage of the kids had PTSD
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symptoms this is 20 years ago in
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Palestine in the West Bank and
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especially in Gaza so now that is the
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80th anniversary of dday which is
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the beginning at least on the Western
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Front of the defeat of the Nazi um
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Empire how can we not relate that to
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what’s going on right now when these
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children in Gaza are witnessing all the
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things that I just described that people
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have been Gaza witnessing for decades
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and that I myself experienced as an
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infant and the resonance is just too
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powerful and and this beautiful film and
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actually the most beautiful part of the
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film as much as I love my friend oir is
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not the part about her although she
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plays a major role in it it’s just when
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the filmmakers show the experience of
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pales inan peasants and Shepherds and
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Ordinary People and what it’s like to
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live under
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this in the grips of this brutal and
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Relentless um occupation and so I went
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there to work with that and yeah this
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anniversary of dday really resonates for
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me it’s the again is the 80th
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anniversary of my own birth that year
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but
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also that same horror being reenacted
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now on Palestinian children and
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Palestinian people in this clip from
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where ol of trees weep that’s premiering
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today we hear psychologist and human
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rights activists Elena beatric monik
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chado of unwa the UN Agency for
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Palestine refugees she works with
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schools and betwin communities in the
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West Bank you are not on a situation
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where the traumatic situation had
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happened and now people have a safe
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space where you can work on that so you
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need to understand that working on
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trauma will be on a context of ongoing
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traumatic
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situation you cannot make a normal life
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if you are all the time in touch with
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the pain and the sorrow and the grief
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and in this clip from where olive trees
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weep Palestinian Ahmed Salah describes
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being placed from aaja Village during
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the
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[Music]
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nakba I was born in the
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village in
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1947 the Israeli occupation took over
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our village and deported
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us we were displaced into the hills and
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we settled
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here temporarily in caves and
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Tents hoping to return to our village as
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was promised by the United
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Nations we live the life of refugees
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displaced with no home land or
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[Music]
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income being a stranger in your Homeland
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is a dreadful
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feeling a feeling that is not easy to
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accept but what else can we do this is
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the reality
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Liv Dr gor mate if you can take it from
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there you were born 3 years before this
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you’re 80 years old now and talk about
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what it meant for you to flee hungry and
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then what you see when you return to the
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West Bank just two years
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ago well you know there’s some such sad
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parallels um in a few days I’ll be
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visiting Hungary I’ll be showing my
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children For the First Time The Very
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spot the very paving stones in Budapest
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where my mother gave me to a total
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stranger to save my life and I didn’t
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see her for five or six weeks you can go
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through Hungary and Eastern
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Europe and not know that there used to
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be Jewish life there Jewish villages
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buildings synagogues schools you can go
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through Israel and not know that there
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used to be Palestinian life there
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Villages schools graveyards now in the
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West Bank which is my third visit there
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two years ago to work with these women
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many of them have been tortured in
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Israel jails and they had all the
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typical symptoms of what we call
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post-traumatic stress
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disorder um but in my what I can tell
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you is that the atmosphere in the West
20:22
Bank two years ago when I was there was
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much heavier than even when I had been
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there for the first time in the first
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in um at that time in 1992 when I first
20:33
visited there was still an air of Hope
20:35
the world seemed to be paying attention
20:36
to the Palestinian cause at that time
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there was a fair Bit of Sympathy
20:40
internationally for um the legitimate
20:44
rights of the
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Palestinians two years ago there was
20:48
despondence people felt alone
20:52
abandoned um the pressure of the
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occupation the intensity of the um
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there’s hardly any family whose members
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had not been jailed at one time or
21:03
another um there was
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um the intensity of the occupation the
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the checkpoints the surveillance the
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that terrible
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wall um that you can see through the
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occupied territories it had all combined
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to create such an air of despondence and
21:26
and and and and S of
21:29
aloneness um at the same time I had to
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be very um impressed with the
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resilience the ongoing willingness to
21:39
endure amongst Palestinians and I should
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also mention here the sympathetic and
21:46
brave Israelis who stand up to all that
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H Amira as being one of them and some of
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them helped to organize my visit as well
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so it’s not a question
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of you know Jews versus s or
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Palestinians versus Israelis it’s a
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question of a
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system that has imposed itself like a
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like a monster suppressing and squeezing
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the life out of Palestinian national
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cultural and personal life and that’s
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what I saw when I was there two years
22:18
ago and and the women I was working with
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what was interesting is the commonest
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symptoms you might say was a sense of
22:28
guilt that they hadn’t been strong
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enough to resist that they hadn’t
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rescued their friends um it’s a typical
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trauma response that these things is all
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my fault but it was you know as somebody
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works with trauma to witness all this on
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such a massive scale even for me it was
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shocking and what little could I do to
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help them um at least at least what I
22:54
could do and what this film does and
22:57
what your program does so consistently
22:59
is the
23:00
witness it’s the witness so they don’t
23:03
feel so alone so a sharer doesn’t have
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to feel so alone with her
23:09
experience democracy Now is funded by
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