On February 18 of this year, the French department showed a movie from 2012, Le Fils de L’autre, about the switching of babies in a hospital in Haifa. The babies were from two totally opposite families. One, the Sielberg’s, were Jewish and the other family, the Al-Bezzar’s, were Palestinian. The families had no idea of the mishaps until Joseph, the non biological child of the Sielberg’s, went to go try out for the air force on the side of the Israelis. The blood test came back A+ when his “parents” were both A-. This opened up a big hoorah over his real parents. The story then gets deeper as one finds out that his “mother” was faithful to her husband, but that the hospital had switched up the babies by accident as the attacks in Haifa were occurring in 1991. The purpose of me putting this on the blog is because it gave the serious emotional strife it leaves both families. Joseph was raised as Jewish and sees himself as Jewish until the Rabbi finds out about the incident. He tells Joseph he is no longer Jewish making him lose his identity of 18 years. On the other side, Yacine, the non biological son of the Al-Bezzar’s, has just got back from graduating school in Paris and returns to the West Bank. He over hears the arguing going on with his parents about him being someone else’s child and his brother Blai starts to treat him like the enemy immediately. He disowns Yacine and speaks all kinds of evils against his own “brother” of 18 years. The “fathers” of both boys find it hard to acknowledge the travesty and completely shuts down all communication with the boys until their wives had enough of the charades. The importance of this movie shows the deep historical and religious feelings that still effect both sides. The Jewish and Palestinian communities both find their heritage in this small strip of land. The Palestinians find that the land of their ancestors and the land of their parents was stolen. The Jews find that this land was theirs centuries ago and are sole heirs to this sacred land. This movie breaks it down for youth of today to really understand the psychological damage this has played on both sides. I truly would recommend this movie to anyone who was having a hard time putting the events of the creation of Israel into order like me. The French department still have the movie and upon request would gladly lend the movie out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0i4CaXvG6k
