Yedidiah’s Collection – Haosef Shel Yedidiah (2005)

Directed by: Noam Demsky, Mordi Kershner | 18 minutes | documentary

On August 17, 2005, the Israeli army began the forced eviction of a number of Jewish settlements in the Palestinian Gaza Strip. As part of the Israeli government’s “withdrawal policy”, images of soldiers forcing families to leave their homes and settlements were shown on Dutch television for a few days. The images on display were often sad and filled with angry, screaming adults and crying children. This statue is the same one that shows ‘Yedidiah’s Collection’.

The documentary starts in February 2005, six months before the eviction. Yedidiah is a sweet and cheerful boy who is always busy with friends and has a very special hobby: he collects remains of (kassam) rockets, bullets from machine guns and rifles and all kinds of other found “war objects”; all to remind him of the hard times he and his family went through in Morag. He is very proud of his collection and proudly claims that it is the largest anyone in his hometown will ever have.

Yedidiah talks a lot about the possible eviction, but hopes, like his family and many friends in the settlement, that it will not go through. Yedidiah is especially scared because he doesn’t know where he will end up after his family has to leave the hometown. Six months later, the day arrives that all settlers hoped never to have to experience. This situation causes many sad and touching moments and Yedidiah also cannot always contain his emotions. Eventually, Yedidiah and his family are evicted and set off for an unknown destination.

Despite the fact that ‘Yedidiah’s Collection’ is a very short documentary, as a viewer you quickly feel for Yedidiah and the situation in which he finds himself. As an outsider, it seems very unfair that he has to experience such an unpleasant situation as a young child. It’s nice to see that Yedidiah’s character comes out so well in these short eighteen minutes and that he is a very happy and positive boy right up to the last moment. This moving film is well worth watching and portrays the fears and dreams of a small child very well. Highly recommended.