Médecins Sans Frontières - DOCUMENTARY: Gaza.Tha Waiting Room (ENG)

Unique Identifier Code / URN MSF264894

Date taken / Date Recorded 05/03/2019 12:00 AM

Country Palestinian Territories

Commissioning section MSF-FRANCE

Photographer / videographer / producer Simon Rolin

Copyright MSF

Usage Rights (MSF) External Media, MSF Fundraising, MSF Publications

Formal Consent Copy available yes

Editor's rating ★★★★★★ (B)

Video format h264 (Main) (avc1 / 0x31637661)

Duration 14m20s

Maximum Size 1920px × 1080px 1.42 GB

Additional Information / Shotlist SEQ INTRO

Text: GAZA STRIP

- Voices
- I went close to the fence and they shot me.
- There were about 200 metres between me and the fence.
- We were peaceful. I wasn’t carrying any bullets, rockets, or weapons.
- I had seven fractures. The bone was in pieces.

TITRE:
The Waiting Room.
Lives in limbo in the wake of
the "Great March of Return"

Text:
RAMI
40 years old
Injured 1 october 2018

Rami :
Pain is not only a sensation, it affects my mind.
I lose concentration because all I think of is my wound.
I just think of how this pain can be reduced.
The pain is continuous and I tend to isolate myself, and so my kids are beginning to feel that I am not as close to them as I was.
I sit and close the door because I cannot bear being 40 years old and crying in front of them, because I might collapse.
So I sit alone in my room and see nobody, because noise bothers me and movement is painful.
I was a completely different person from what I am now.

Text:
MARWA
28 years old
injured 6 April 2018

Marwa :
I was very happy before I was injured.
But after being injured it’s been very hard. It hasn’t stopped until now.
I’m unable to look after my children, I can’t lead a normal life.

Text:
FIRAS
19 years old
injured 4 June 2018

Firas :
Me and my friends, we used to go to the beach,
do some acrobatics now and then, and go to parties to dance.

We are passionate about it.
It was something that used to move me.

I have always loved to sing, since I was small.
My dad sings. He sings at parties.
And so since I was small I have been singing.
Life goes on.

SEQ LIVE Dr Zhi - Firas
Firas: Electricity ! I feel electricity here.
Traductrice : Do you feel any pain in this area ?
Firas : Right here in this area, when the doctor changes the dressing and touches the metal, I scream.
Dr Zhi : If we don't keep the infection under control, there is a risk that he might lose his leg.

Firas :
The bone is rotten.
You will lose something.
Maybe you’ll have to walk with crutches or a prosthetic limb.
You start thinking a lot. About what’s in front of you. It’s scary.
I wish for health. I wish for health, for a healthy leg.
No more pain, to return to walking again.
That’s the future I want.

Chanson Firas
No one helped me
When I needed someone
What heartless people in this world
My God
Let it be the end of cruelty in this world

Rami:
Zikim is an area at the northern border.
It’s at the coast.
It’s not really like a border, it’s like a front line in a war.

I was there peacefully and respectfully
Like other protesters at the March of Return
to express our refusal on the treatment by the occupation.

I was by the beach, in the water.
They saw me with their own eyes, not with a rifle scope.
They saw that I was not carrying weapons, bombs or rockets.
Why did they do this to me ? Why this crime? Why this excessive force? I’m not a state, I’m not a tank.

When I got shot I was standing by the water.
I felt as if I had been electrocuted, that my head had been detached from my body.
I didn’t think I’d been injured in the leg,

Firas :
We were looking for a place where we could release what’s inside us.
To shout and play and do anything we wanted to do.
We were trying to find a place where we could do what people do in any other country.

What’s Gaza?
Where can we walk?
Sadness, frustration, all our life is tiredness.
The youth can’t find work, they can’t have an education or hope, only depression.
It’s destroyed us.

Marwa:
I left my house – I live in al Qarara – at 1:45. I was wounded at 2:30.
When I first arrived, a quarter of an hour hadn’t gone by,
someone fell in front of me, injured. I wanted to take him back to the guys but I was shot in the leg and I fell over.

When I entered the operating theatre they removed the destroyed nerves and flesh and things like that.
My leg reached the brink of amputation but thanks to God that didn’t happen.

Rami :
Today, because of my injury, I lost my income. I have no income whatsoever.
My father helps me with food.
We had to reduce our expenses.
We used to have three meals a day but now we have only one or two.

SEQ LIVE Dr Zhi – Rami
Dr Zhi : The knee?
Rami : Yes. If anything touches it, I’m in a lot of pain.

Rami :
In the past, when I got home, my kids used to gather around me and I used to spoil them, take care, support and play with them.
Now, I am unable to do these things because I cannot bear anyone touching my body and any movement is painful to me.

SEQ LIVE Physio Rami
Rami: I feel as if the external fixator is ripping my flesh.

Rami :
Sometimes things escalate between me and my wife, almost to the point of divorce.
Sometimes she leaves, but then everyone tells her that Rami is a good man, that she should be patient.
But then again, when she comes back, my pain is stronger than any other feeling.
All my emotions are overwhelmed by my pain. I become unkind to her.
And this is the hardest thing my fellow injured and I are experiencing.

Now, I prefer loneliness. I prefer to be isolated in a closed room.
I cannot bear crying or feeling pain in front of my kids and wife.

SEQ PLAN RAMI DS SALLE PHYSIO+PLAN MAWA

Marwa:
I like isolation, after my injury I isolated myself.
And isolation is good, you often find me sitting alone.

SEQ KINE MARWA

My husband is not with me. He stayed in my house and I moved in with my parents.
He keeps telling me to come back home and look after the children, but I need to feel better before I can go home and take care of them.
I’m unable to look after my children, I can’t lead a normal life.
My mother is looking after me, and she is nearly seventy years old.
I would never have wanted this, but here we are.

Firas:
Other injured people feel the same pain as me, they have the same feelings.
No one can understand the pain except those who are injured too.
They feel the same things that I feel.
That’s why we are always ready to help each other.
But people who do not feel this pain will never understand your suffering.

SEQ LIVE Dr Mahmoud -Rami
Rami : Are my toes ok?
Dr Mahmoud : They’re are in great shape. And the nerves are good.
Can you bend your legs so I can check them please?
Rami : Not much.
Dr Mahmoud : : Next time if you come with 2 crutches, I won’t want to see you!
Rami : I'll try. I know you’re trying to motivate me.

RAMI :
Dr. Mahmoud told me that my leg was mmissing 7cm of bone, so I had a bone graft. Even after that, however, I still have 3cm missing. Those 3cm cannot be filled. So I will spend the rest of my life with a disability, and I will no longer be the normal Rami, the one who used to run, dance dabkeh.
Today, I am no longer a normal person. My posture will be unbalanced.
Society will not accept me in roles that are meant for an able and healthy person.

FIRAS
I want to return to beatboxing, to everything.
We did everything... Dancing... Acrobatics...
We did wonderful things.

We learned all this in the street.
If there was a school for this then I would go there, but there are no such schools.

MARWA
A month ago, in Dar es Salaam hospital, I had an operation for my nerves and my tendons, and hopefully, God willing, things will be better.
Hopefully I will be able to lead a normal life with my husband and children.

RAMI
It’s been six months now. I do not feel any improvement.
There’s a lot of pain, movement is not that good. I can only walk with crutches.
I still need follow-up and care. I hope I get well soon.