ASHBURTON: Arts Centre

Saturday 18th January, 2025

6:00pm

Event information

West Street Peace Group* invites you to share food and to watch this documentary film together about life in the West Bank, Palestine

Doors and bar open 6pm
Food served from 6:30pm
Film screening begins 7:30pm

Filmed over three weeks in 2022, Where Olive Trees Weep is a painful but heartbreakingly beautiful documentary that provides a window into the continuing struggle and resilience of Ashira Darwish, Ahed Tamimi and other Palestinians living in the West Bank under illegal Israeli occupation.
It explores themes of loss, trauma and the quest for justice, and shows the Holocaust survivor Dr Gabor Maté working with women who have been tortured in Israeli prisons.

The meal will be a simple vegetarian middle-eastern-style buffet, included in the ticket price with further donations welcome on the night.

*West Street Peace Group is an informal group of people who hold a peace vigil on the pavement outside 13 – 15 West St on Friday evenings from 5.30 – 6pm. This started shortly after 7 October 2023. Their aim is to keep the current conflicts around the world in people’s consciousness and to encourage work towards peaceful resolutions.

More about the film:
This important documentary about the resilience of Palestinians in the face of the brutal and illegal occupation of their homeland by Israel demands to be seen.
Filmed in the West Bank in 2022, Where Olive Trees Weep offers a searing window into the struggles and resilience of the Palestinian people under Israeli occupation. It explores themes of loss, trauma, and the quest for justice. Ancient landscapes bear deep scars, having witnessed the brutal reality of ancestral land confiscation, expulsions, imprisonment, home demolitions, water deprivation, and denial of basic human rights.
Yet, through the veil of oppression, we catch a glimpse of resilience—deep roots that have carried the Palestinian people through decades of darkness and shattered lives. This emotional journey bares the humanity of the oppressed while grappling with the question: what makes the oppressor so ruthlessly blind to its own cruelty?

Post-film reflections and discussion will follow the screening.

Due to the heavy nature of the topic, we recommend this event for ages 16+ with parental attendance.

It is being hosted by West Street Peace Vigil and Ashburton Quakers.

Funds raised will go to Combatants for Peace and The Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI).
https://www.quaker.org.uk/our-work/eappi