by Maria Angela Danzì – This story of Erasmus in Gaza is a true story, a story of today even if the documentary film was shot in 2019: unfortunately nothing has changed in Gaza, on the contrary. The panorama of the city that can be seen in one of the scenes is no longer like this today; even the hospital where the protagonist studied – the emergency surgery building in al-Shifa – is now partly a pile of rubble and partly an unsafe building in which they are trying to save lives with very few tools and hopes .
Thanks to the collaboration with Assopace Palestina we are bringing to the cinemas of many cities this documentary by Chiara Avesani and Matteo Delbò on the singular experience had by Riccardo Corradini, then a young medical student who had decided to go on Erasmus in Gaza, in that armored and besieged strip to learn the profession of care. Riccardo was the first European student to choose a training path in this area and since then his life has changed and also ours as citizens and spectators: through his eyes and his story we can better understand what it means to live beyond closed crossings, beyond impenetrable checkpoints through which nothing or no one passes, not before and not even now, in these days of war and hunger, of shortages of medicines, food and water more than ever. According to the World Health Organization, between 7 October 2023 and the beginning of April 2024, there were at least 435 attacks against healthcare facilities or personnel across Gaza, while the only way to deliver humanitarian aid is to drop it from the sky , like bombs.
The position of the Movement and the European delegation is clear right from the start: peace cannot be achieved with weapons but with diplomacy. The documentary and its protagonists are the most effective practical proof of this which is not a utopia but a strategy.
This is why in March I was happy to be able to propose a free screening of Erasmus in Gaza: we had taken a room for 150 people and we found just as many outside who wanted to enter. From there, as part of my events in the college area, the North West, I decided to show it to as many people as possible and on 16 April I also brought it to Brussels, inside the headquarters of the European Parliament, what better place ? Here we not only saw the film but we also spoke to the director, the protagonist and two of the co-protagonists, both connected from the Strip: one, Jumana Shanin, spoke to us from under the bombs in Rafah where she was with her husband and her daughter, constantly moving from camp to camp, like over a million Palestinians, looking for the safest place to survive. Without deluding yourself into returning to your home, because you cannot and will not be able to.
Yet, as in the documentary Shanin continues to work in the humanitarian field. The other testimony is that of Adam Jad, 25 years old, born and raised in a state of war, whose message came through loud and clear: “We were not born to die, but to do our best to live in peace and equality.” If the scenes of the wounded arriving in the hospital and the scary ones of the bombings are touching, so too are those of the celebrations that break out when the explosions end, or of the football matches of moments of tranquility, or of the discussions around feelings, different ways of living them, Riccardo who lives with his girlfriend and his Palestinian colleague who is waiting to get married.
Erasmus is a program that has been important in building a Europe of peoples starting with its students. Erasmus in Gaza is the opportunity to better appreciate the value of democracy, it is the decision to focus on knowledge and cultural diplomacy to build Peace.
Thanks to Riccardo for having paved the way for an important training experience, not an easy and light Erasmus, but an opportunity for growth through a strong experience. Which I hope will serve as an example for many other young Europeans.
Erasmus screenings in Gaza (free entry)
April 26
8.30pm
Cinema Moretta
Corso Langhe 106, Alba (CN)
April 27
7.00pm
Hotel Barrage
Stradale S.Secondo 100, Pinerolo (TO)
THE AUTHOR
Maria Angela Danzi she was born in 1957 in Librizzi, Messina, and lives in Milan. After graduating in Political Science in 1981 and completing a course in Higher European Studies at the ENA in Strasbourg, she made a career as a public manager. Since 2 November 2022 you have been a member of the 5 Star Movement in the European Parliament where you mainly deal with public health, the environment and food safety.
