Obama’s impending visit to Israel and Palestine has already made possible two achievements in the struggle to free Palestine. One: Mohammed El Kurd, 14, hero of the vibrant documentary, My Neighbourhood, about the ethnic cleansing of Sheikh Jarrah in illegally Occupied East Jerusalem, eloquently appeals for justice in an open letter to the President (full text below).

Two: The Guardian kindly offers us a chance to watch the entire 25-minute film (by Julia Bacha, Rebekah Wingert-Jabi, and Budrus creators Just Vision) about Mohammed’s resilience in the midst of the joint Palestinian and Israeli protests against the racist, violent thefts.

In his letter, Mohammed asks Obama the obvious, which is rarely heard in the dominant U.S. press: “I hope in the future you will stop giving military aid to support Israel’s illegal occupation of my people.” He beseeches the President to “see our situation for yourself,” even though, he says, “It’s not like you don’t know what’s happening here. I’m sure you know everything.”

The young man talks hauntingly of his old life, “This was once a beautiful neighbourhood. Everybody was so close, and before part of my house was evicted, I was never afraid of going to sleep.” He details the heartbreaking effects of the Jewish colonists stealing half his house: “The little kids wet their beds. My sister couldn’t sleep. The settlers have a dog in our house and every time it went past, she wet herself.”

Mohammed says that the confiscation “tore us apart. We were one big family, and now everyone lives in a different city. We are extremely uncomfortable and uncertain about what is going to happen here. Children my age and much younger are regularly arrested, interrogated and beaten by Israeli police, and violently attacked by settlers. For most of my life I have felt unsafe and threatened in my own neighbourhood and even in my own home.”

Valiant Mohammed reveals what our media fears to say, that our government pays to silence Palestinian aspirations: “US military aid to Israel is used directly against unarmed Palestinian demonstrators. I hope in the future you will stop giving military aid to support Israel’s illegal occupation of my people.”

Young El Kurd–old before his time, like so many of his land– pleads “that you and others will not remain silent while our homes are taken, children are arrested and injured, and our future threatened.”

He culminates by linking the wrong-filled present and risk-filled future to the past, by requesting simple justice for of all peoples purged from their homes: “Mr President, we want our houses back. And our pre-1948 land. It’s not fair what’s happening here, and most of the world doesn’t realise it. So if I had one wish I would get everyone’s rights back.” He ends by connecting our small to our greater duty: restoration, “From a little ball they stole from a boy in the street to a big farm they stole from a grandfather.”

My Neighbourhood, equally affecting,–previously available only in clips and rare online or public screenings– was discussed by Ira Glunts and Allison Deger.

So I’ll only add that the film highlights the stakes in Obama’s trip to Palestine and Israel, upending both his old and new justifications for the maintenance of a Jewish state – the ancient Biblical script and recent Nazi horrors, alike.

After showing the violence of Israeli-Jewish invaders pushing out Mohammed’s family, the documentary displays a colonist living in the stolen house, excusing his own larceny: “The Bible says that this area in this country belongs to the Jewish people. This is Jewish land and the Jewish need to live here” (6:44). He adds, “We have not finished the job, we are going to the next neighborhood and the next….” We see colonists taunt Palestinians: “Soon enough you will be sleeping in the trash cans of Ramallah,” adding, “In blood, in fire, we will kick out the Arabs” (10:54).

The film movingly depicts how this brutality, and Israeli-government support for such theft, has moved some Israeli Jews to gather support for the Palestinian families’ resistance. Siblings Zvi and Sarah Benninga explain why they help lead the protest against the Sheikh Jarrah evictions. They cannot live with the unjust Israeli “state” and “law,” which–having declared East Jerusalem “Jewish” before 1948–license any Jewish person to grab it, while barring the actual Palestinian owners who can prove that they’ve owned it since 1956, from even petitioning the court (14:00). Zvi declares that the colonists “terrorise” Palestinians.

The Benningas’ parents, slower to protest but persuaded by their children to join, offer radical reasons for demonstrating. Both were raised in America and at first loved their new Israeli life. Terry, their mother, recalls, “They [her kids] forced me,” because “their activities” tacitly posed the question,“Where were you when something was happening? Stand up and be counted!” (16:00).

Simon, the father–the last to demonstrate–adds the clincher: “whenever my children get arrested, it brings up very, very bad memories for me” (18:00). Simon connects the lessons of Nazi Germany to his children’s activism against the Occupation, as the film juxtaposes scenes of Israeli police violently suppressing dissent:

“I’m the child of Holocaust survivors, and the few people in my family who survived were helped by righteous people. We grew up very much knowing that just and righteous and brave people can make a difference.” Simon concludes, “That’s a message we imparted to our children, and I think they’re living out this message in circumstances that are appropriate to what is going on in Jerusalem” (18:49).

My Neighbourhood reminds us why we—including even “Ofra Ben-Arzi, PM Netanyahu’s sister-in-law,” work to free Palestine: “Where there is injustice and human rights violations, and people are being thrown out of their homes, I have an obligation to be here” (21:00). As 10-year-old Mohammed El-Kurd exhorts us in the film, “Wake up, Wake up!” (3:00).

*****

Below is Mohammed El Kurd’s searing letter in full, from The Guardian:

“Dear President Obama,

I am 14 and live in the Palestinian Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in East Jerusalem. Almost four years ago my family and I were evicted from part of our home by Israeli settlers, backed by Israeli court decisions. The process has made life almost unbearable for me and tens of thousands of Palestinians. Settlers are working towards Jewish control of all of East Jerusalem, at times using violence against Palestinians.

This was once a beautiful neighbourhood. Everybody was so close, and before part of my house was evicted, I was never afraid of going to sleep. We used to have no worries. Now it doesn’t feel like a Palestinian neighbourhood any more. All the signs are in Hebrew, and the music too.

The people who’ve been evicted have lost financially and emotionally. My father has stopped going to work for almost a year, because it was so crowded and dangerous and every day there was tension and violence, so he couldn’t just leave us alone in the house with the settlers. The little kids wet their beds. My sister couldn’t sleep. The settlers have a dog in our house and every time it went past, she wet herself.

This thing that happened tore us apart. We were one big family, and now everyone lives in a different city. We are extremely uncomfortable and uncertain about what is going to happen here. Children my age and much younger are regularly arrested, interrogated and beaten by Israeli police, and violently attacked by settlers. For most of my life I have felt unsafe and threatened in my own neighbourhood and even in my own home.

Mr President, you have the power to change that. The most simple thing you could do is see our situation for yourself and speak out about it, to see the reality and talk about what you see. It’s not like you don’t know what’s happening here. I’m sure you know everything.

On this trip I hope that you will speak out against the Israeli government’s role in supporting the settlers and pressure the Israeli government to change its policies. US military aid to Israel is used directly against unarmed Palestinian demonstrators. I hope in the future you will stop giving military aid to support Israel’s illegal occupation of my people.

I also hope that in the future justice will return to the people. I hope the world will begin to speak out against the oppression we face in my neighbourhood and [the oppression] against all Palestinians. That you and others will not remain silent while our homes are taken, children are arrested and injured, and our future threatened.

Mr President, we want our houses back. And our pre-1948 land. It’s not fair what’s happening here, and most of the world doesn’t realise it. So if I had one wish I would get everyone’s rights back. From a little ball they stole from a boy in the street to a big farm they stole from a grandfather.”