Father Yousef Yaakob, the head of the Maronite Church in Haifa, left a few minutes into the start of the screening. “I left early; there was a scene where a grenade was thrown at a father and his two children, and the father died while the children just cried. It’s impossible to accept this,” he said. “I’m a father as well; I have children, and families shouldn’t experience such things. It’s evil, it’s wickedness. I have no words for it.”
Was what you saw emotionally challenging? “Very much so. These are real people who died; it’s not a movie. I don’t want to remember people being murdered in such a way. Doing something like this isn’t honorable for humanity. It’s just unbelievable. These are people whose light has gone out.”