Gaza Before the Law (2017), Single-channel HD video (color with sound), looped.
Gaza Before the Law explores a lawsuit filed against the US Government by Akram Abousharar, a Palestinian-American lawyer based in Orange County, California. The lawsuit claims US military support of Israel violates the Leahy Amendment to the 1961 Foreign Assistance Act, which bars the US from giving military aid to any country that commits human rights violations. Gaza Before the Law intercuts footage of Gaza, shot of Abousharar after the 2014 Israeli siege, with notes from the actual hearing, and scenes from Abousharar’s law practice in Orange County to offer a layered examination of the limits to law in matters of politics. It also delves into the difficult terrain of how the violence of war and occupation is experienced from the Palestinian diaspora.