A look at life in Palestine

By Estela Fuentes
The Guardsman

The short documentary “Shooting Muhammad” opens our eyes to the injustice, oppression and racism Palestinians go through on a daily basis when they leave their refugee camps and must enter Israeli territories.

Muhammad is a 21-year-old man trying to better himself through education. He travels about two hours a day to an Israeli university where he is the only Arab student in his major.

The documentary is not only focused on Muhammad, it follows the people of the camp he lives in and what they do in a place where they are not wanted. It shows interviews of Israelis expressing their hate and fears of Arabs, as well of interviews of Arab students who just want to be accepted.

Muhammad expresses how he goes day by day living a life in a place where he is seen as garbage to make his family proud and be a better person.

However, the most heart-wrenching part in the film has nothing to do with Muhammad. It is video footage from an Israeli mall where at least 5 different people swarmed and beat a 13-year-old Arab boy until he was unconscious and mall security did nothing to stop it.

This documentary was bittersweet for me because it opened my eyes, and I learned something new, but it made me sad to see the cruelty and oppression Palestinians deal with.

This film will be playing at Shattuck Cinemas in Berkeley on Oct. 24 at 4 p.m. along with 3 other short films as part of the Arab Film Festival.