Turn up the lights, the movie is coming on

According to Antony Loewenstein Gazans must endure multiple deprivations: not enough food, water, gas, diesel, building materials, electricity and so on. In the title of a recent post he tries to make a point about electricity shortages, instead providing an example of the unintentional humour he's rightly famous for:

Watching cinema in the dark in Gaza

Which is how anyone with even half a brain watches a movie. The linked story concerns an Arab film festival but also takes a swipe at Israel, of course:

Last Thursday marked the end of a one-week film festival in Gaza City. The Palestinian Film Forum, an independent Palestinian community organization, sponsored the event with 33 films produced in six Arab Gulf states. Ranging from documentaries to educational and short films, this is the first film festival in Gaza since Israel placed the territory under a tight blockade more than 30 months ago.

A Gaza film festival is a tad ironic in any event since the strip has no cinemas. Jeez, you mean those evil Israelis don't want Palestinians trapped in Gaza watching movies so they bombed all of the cinemas? Not exactly:

Gaza used to have six major movie houses, but all were shut down because Palestinian activists felt entertainment was inappropriate at a time of struggle.

A movie house called al-Nasser was only reopened in 1995 for three months before being burned and destroyed by radical Hamas protestors in Gaza.

It looks like they'll have to wait until it comes out on DVD.