We would like to alert our readers to an important documentary film project that needs our financial support. The film, “Road to Tantura,” produced and directed by Hala Gabriel,will help viewers understand the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Through a fiscal sponsorship program with the International Documentary Association, the “Road to Tantura” documentary has 501(c)(3) status and donations toward this project are tax deductible. Please visit the websitewww.roadtotantura.com and click the “Make a Donation” link.
Hala Gabriel Describes “Road to Tantura”
This documentary chronicles my journey back to my family’s village in Palestine. Tantura was a beautiful place, a fishing village south of Haifa on the Mediterranean Sea, my father’s hometown and birthplace. But on the night of May 23, 1948, my family was forced out of their beloved home and into prison and refugee camps.
By telling the story of one Palestinian village, this documentary is intended to shed light on the history—and injustice—of these evictions, replicated in more than 500 villages.
My journey began in the summer of 2006. I traveled from Los Angeles to Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Germany, the UK, Israel and South Carolina. I interviewed and videotaped more than 25 Tantura villagers and relatives now scattered in refugee camps throughout Syria who witnessed the attack on Tantura in 1948. I also interviewed six Israeli commandos who participated in the raid, including the man who planned and led the assault.
The footage and interviews will allow me to piece together the events through the words of my surviving relatives and other Tantura villagers. These emotional accounts will be contrasted against the recollections of the soldiers who conducted the attack and mass expulsion in Tantura. These personal accounts will be augmented by the research of Israeli scholar and historian Teddy Katz and Israeli professor Dr. Ilan Pappe, author of the critically acclaimed book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, as well as my personal experience on this journey back to Tantura.
So far Hala Gabriel has personally funded this film. She has collected more than 80 hours of film footage but now she needs our help to cover the cost of hiring a film editor, editing equipment, music licensing and scoring, translating and transcribing Arabic and Hebrew language interviews, film festival entry fees and publicity expenses. For more information, please visit her website,www.roadtotantura.com to watch a film trailer and click the “Make a donation” link.
