Sumud: Palestinian resilience and its impact on the world

Against a background of what some have described as ongoing apartheid and an unfolding genocide, this series of public events explores the resilience of Palestinian people, and the intersections between this resilience and political action around the globe.

Through evocative and informative depictions of life in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, the series examines how governmental actions have inhibited discourse on Palestine and contributed to scholasticide. Featuring lectures and panel presentations from world-leading scholars and journalists, film screenings, and artistic performances, the series celebrates the concept of sumud, and the ways that Palestinian people sustain community against adversity.

Event 4

Film screening: A State of Passion

Thursday 21 August, 6pm

20 Symonds Street

Lecture Theatre : 423-342

A feature-length documentary film by Carol Mansour and Muna Khalidi.

After 43 horrific days working round the clock under constant bombardment in the emergency rooms of Gaza’s Al Shifa and Al Ahli hospitals, British-Palestinian reconstructive surgeon, Dr Ghassan Abu Sittah, emerged to find himself as a face of Palestinian resistance.

With news footage of him pale and shell-shocked reverberating around the world, he spoke of a catalogue of horrors: lacerated bodies, amputations without anaesthetics, orphaned children with no surviving family, and the deliberate targeting of medics and hospital facilities.

This was Ghassan’s sixth and most horrific Gaza “war”. Why does he do it? Where does he find the strength to face it again and again? How does it impact his family? How do they process the risks he takes? The answer lies in their shared love: Palestine.

Filmmakers Carol Mansour and Muna Khalidi, close friends of the Abu Sittahs, share that same passion. Waiting anxiously for Ghassan to return from Gaza, they began filming him the moment he passed through the door. Following him to Beirut, Amman, London, Kuwait, and Dubai, together they explore their common State of Passion.