Learning and Reflecting Together: Film & Discussion night report

We had a packed hall for our second film and discussion evening in June 2026

By Teresa Thornhill

On Sunday 14 June HJJ hosted its second film and discussion evening at the Stade Hall in Hastings. This followed the same format as our first film evening, back in November 2025. The event was widely publicised and open to all.

On the flyer, we said that we would especially welcome ‘anyone who feels lost, in despair, or simply wants to know more in order to make sense of things… We hope this will be a safe space for people to speak and listen to one another with respect and understanding, supported by friendly moderators.’

Around 70 people came, and the hall was packed.

The first film, Sands of Sorrow, made in the early 1950s in black and white, documents the appalling conditions in which Palestinians who had fled from the 1948 Nakba were obliged to live for the following years, in refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and Gaza.

One of the most shocking points it made was that only one of every five babies born in the camps survived beyond the age of six months.

It was also difficult to avoid the conclusion that the conditions in which Palestinians in Gaza are currently living during the genocide are no better and probably worse than those in which their forbears lived over 70 years ago.

In the 1950s the UN was allowed to supply tents, food and rudimentary medical care to Palestine refugees, whereas in early 2025 the UN agency UNRWA was banned by Israel from providing services in Gaza and the West Bank.

The second film, The Palestine Laboratory, was made by Australian Jewish journalist Antony Loewenstein and shown on Al Jazeera in January 2025.

Part one of a two-part series, it explores how the highly successful Israeli arms industry gets the IDF to test its hi-tech weaponry in Gaza and the West Bank, enabling it to then market it as ‘battle-tested’.

Based on interviews with both Palestinians and Israelis, the film paints a clear picture of the appalling level of surveillance to which Palestinians in the Occupied Territories are now subjected.

It also carries a wake-up call for all of us, implicitly warning of the ways in which tech can and will be used by governments to control populations in other parts of the world.

Following the screening, the room broke into small group discussions with no more than eight or nine people to a table.

Moderators were asked to ensure that everybody had the opportunity to speak; there was no ‘goal’ to the discussions, and the participants were free to raise any questions on their minds. Some fascinating discussions ensued.

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