Following British-Palestinian surgeon Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah’s commitment amid Israel’s atrocities
Dr. Ghassan Abu Sittah, a Palestinian-British plastic surgeon specializing in conflict medicine, speaks during an interview at the Institute for Palestine Studies in Beirut, Lebanon, 9 December 2023.
Mariana Hristova reports in The New Arab on 13 December, 2024
If anyone still doubts that hell has surfaced on Earth and roams Gaza, they need to watch Carol Mansour and Muna Khalidi’s latest documentary, A State of Passion.
This all-encompassing portrait of British-Palestinian surgeon Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah — volunteering for the sixth time in his homeland of Palestine during a military conflict — lays bare the ongoing atrocities, which, despite the hypocritical rhetoric of international human rights discourse, no legal body seems capable of ending.
A State of Passion recently celebrated its world premiere at the 45th Cairo International Film Festival, where it won the top prizes in the Horizons of Arab Cinema and Documentary Competitions while Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah received a Special Mention in the Palestinian section.
The two filmmakers, known for their substantial Palestine-related filmography, had been close friends to Dr Ghassan for some time before deciding to document his current mission after enduring 43 harrowing days working tirelessly under relentless bombardment in the emergency rooms of Gaza’s Al Shifa and Al Ahli hospitals.
In Cairo, Carol recalls: “While in Gaza, we were in contact, and he said, ‘I’m leaving tonight through Rafah, going to Amman for 24 hours, and then heading to London to see my family.’ Muna looked at me and said, ‘Let’s go to Amman.’ So, we sent him a message, and that’s how it all started. Ten hours later, we were on a plane to Amman.”