Search - Diameter of the Bomb on DVD

A Story of Tragedy, An Unmitigated Tragedy.

Charles Curtis | Jackman, Maine | 07/12/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"My feelings, & thoughts, after seeing this film are profoundly divided.

The title of the film is taken from that of a poem by the Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai.

It touches on the lives of some of those killed in a suicide bombing of Jerusalem bus 32A on June 18th, 2002. 19 Israeli dead, 14 were residents of Gilo, a suburb of Jerusalem, built on land annexed by Israel after the Six Day War (google the name for details). The 20th body found, was that of the terrorist bomber ("al- shaheed"), Muhammad al- Ral, a law student at An-Najah University in Nablus. 74 others were wounded in the bombing.

This was one of the worst attacks of the Second Intifada.

So this is a story of utter tragedy, not only for those who died on that terrible day, but for us all. Of the twenty dead, the film only explicitly touches on six. Three Israeli girls, Michal & Shani, one Israeli Ethiopian Christian girl Galila; & then (more briefly) two Israeli males Ayman & (the bus driver) Rami.

Then Muhammad.

I found the four or five seconds of footage that showed Muhammad's face, blown off on the ground as if an empty limp mask, to be horrifically eloquent. The most graphic image in the entire film, shows how utterly nihilistic his act was.

But the film spends far too little time exploring why he did what he did. Palestinians are only briefly interviewed.

The cult of martyrdom, so inexplicable to the Western/Judeo-Christian mind, needs explication.

To me, the tragic plight of the Palestinians is so egregious, that their choice of tactics is the sole thing that destroys them in international opinion. If they eschewed such odious methods, they would easily attain the status of Nelson Mandela's ANC (who also used terrorism as a method, but never suicide) or Gandhi's Indian independence movement.

Such acts only play into the hands of Likudnik extremists such as Sharon, Netanyahu & Olmert.

Sharon, in the film, demands the scene of the bombing remain unaltered until he can arrive, so as to have a photo- op amongst the carnage.

Thus do Muhammad al- Ral & his supporters play into his people's worst enemies hands.

That, after the carnage, is his saddest legacy."