“9 Star Hotel” A movie that opens your eyes

If someone stole your house, knocked it down, threw you out of the city, build a huge wall so that you couldn’t come back in and then hired you to build their lofty house on your land (as cheap labor) if you could sneak back into the city somehow, would you work for them? 

This is what some Palestinians have had to resort too.  For us living in a land of luxury, the idea might seem funny or idiotic.  I mean, why would you help your enemies take your own land?  But this is not funny to the Palestinians who are in a life and death situation.   

I was looking through the DVD section at our local public library and found a documentary called “9 Star Hotel”.  I was surprised to see that almost for the first time, there was something out there that actually was accurate to a portion of the Palestinian situation and the most intriguing part of this award-winning film was that it was directed by an Israeli.

The documentary doesn’t really mention religion apart from the fact that the people in the film happen to be Muslims but it told the story of Palestinian youth who sneak into new Israeli areas – a.k.a. Palestinian areas illegally taken over by Israelis – in order to desperately find work to feed their huge families. 

To put things into perspective, the average Palestinian makes about $1-2 per day when meat might cost up to $6 or more per pound.  A family of five children is considered a small family. It’s usual for electricity to get cut out eight hours per day.  You usually only get water once per week.  You cannot go for work many times because of the checkpoints every few miles. The borders are closed.  No one comes in.  No one goes out.  You have to build tunnels just to get food and medical supplies to come in.  Bombs are being detonated on mothers, children and men while the rest of the world pretends not to see.  Your citizenship cards expire with no chance of renewal.  People in Palestine most likely will never be able to see Jerusalem.  Many children have to go through two or more checkpoints to and from school, if they can make it to school.  The only way to succeed in this kind of life is to get an education but how can you pay for a decent university degree if you have no money and your schools get bombed?

Now you can get a better idea of why some have to build the settlements of their enemies on their own land.

Watch the movie.  You’ll be intrigued.

(Note: You might be able to rent the DVD at your local library or rental store. 

 Here it is at Blockbuster.)