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The Palestinian family gives a gift no politician seems to be able to give and in doing so breaks isolation when they make contact with the Israeli family that accepts their gift. The gift of the heart drills a hole in the wall – when it’s recieved. The story: the film is about Ahmed, a Palestinian boy who lived in the Jenin refugee camp, on the West Bank. In November 2005 he was shot to death by an Israeli sniper. He was 12 years old. His parents decided to donate his heart to the other side of the wall, to Israel. Samah is the name of the Israeli girl who now lives with Ahmed’s heart. For Ahmed’s parents their son lives on through the girl as a hope for peace with Israel.A gift can effect change when there is someone on the other side willing to accept it. Ahmed’s mother says that the donation was made in the spirit of ‘Salam’ (peace) with Israel “We are sending a message to the whole world that we love peace. We donated six of Ahmed’s organs to the hospital. It’s in the possession of the hospital to donate, regardless of whether the receiver is Jewish, Muslim, Druze or Christian.” A 12-year old girl Samah, received Ahmed’s heart. The film is also about her living in Peq’in, Israel. She sometimes takes charge of the camera and film. She calls Ahmeds father and mother in Jenin. Samah’s father says that Ahmed’s family can regard his daughter as their own and they sometimes meet.
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Jenin is situated in the North of the West Bank. The refugee camp, which is today a part of the city, is inhabited by 13,000 people. The Camp was built by refugees from Haifa after the 1948 war, and is one of the most frequently targeted areas throughout the history of the Israeli occupation. In April 2002 the Jenin Refugee Camp was totally destroyed by the Israeli occupation forces. The United Nations was not let in by the Israelis until a week after. We were only a few photographers who managed to find a way into the city during this week (I climbed a mountain in order to get in) so there is very limited documentary material. I have uploaded all my photos (around 250 photos) and my writer friend Ana Valdés texts here: https://ceciliaparsberg.se/jenin/

Two months later, in june 2002, Israel started the construction of the wall which stretches from North of Jenin and continues to the south encircling the West Bank. The border between the two countries of the families is partly an eight meter high wall, partly a fence, on the Israeli side the area next to the border is a no-mans-land guarded by military and trained dogs. The Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories began in 1967.