Local Surfers Raise Awareness, Call for Ceasefire with ‘Gaza Surf Club’ Screening

“Gaza is nothing without the beach. It’s the only escape for the people.”

That’s a line from a Palestinian surfer in Gaza Surf Club, a 2016 film which documents an intergenerational and mixed-gender group of surfers in Gaza. On Friday, Nov. 17, the documentary screens in San Francisco and Berkeley as part of a grassroots effort to raise relief funds for families impacted by the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas.

The death toll from Israeli air strikes in Gaza surpassed 11,000 late last week, according to Gaza’s ministry of health. While the Israeli government has said its air strikes are a necessary response to the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas that took around 240 people hostage and killed approximately 1,200 in Israel, a human rights expert from the U.N. has said the Israeli military’s current bombardment could soon amount to “ethnic cleansing.”

“This is about amplifying Palestinian voices, which aren’t very accessible right now,” says Yasmine El-Hage, a Bay Area surfer of Lebanese, Peruvian and Iranian descent who is co-organizing the San Francisco event. “Lives in the Middle East and for people of color worldwide aren’t valued equally in our discourse. We see the numbers [of deaths] rising to 11,000, but we need to be reminded that these are people with dreams, just like us.”

For El-Hage and her community of waveriders, that means cultivating a space for connection and discourse centered on a universal human need: access to water. El-Hage — who has volunteered her time as a member of an oil spill emergency response team, and who is active in advocating for clean water rights in San Francisco’s Bayview-Hunters Point community — has previously worked in refugee camps amid various crises. For her, surfing is an escape and a reflection of the human condition, regardless of where you stand on a map.

“[Surfing is] a taste of freedom for all of us, no matter what you’re doing, whatever is going on, you just go out into the ocean and it’s incredibly peaceful,” El-Hage says. “So many of us understand that feeling deeply.”

The screening marks a collaboration between El-Hage and other surfers and community advocates: Drew Madsen of the Blue Water Task Force and Golden Gate Longboard Collective; Leenah, a surfer who is organizing a Surf Power Hour in solidarity with Palestinians in the Peninsula; and Marie Salem, a California community organizer.

The organizers welcome those in the Bay Area who care about the conflict in Gaza but haven’t been quite sure how to get involved. In addition to the screening, a friend of El-Hage, who grew up in Gaza and currently has family there, will speak about their experiences in a Q&A after the film. And the Bay Area’s own vegan Palestinian pop-up, Mishmish, will be on hand to serve diasporic plates throughout the night.

The screening will be hosted at a private location with a suggestion donation of $10, and the option to lend additional aid to the Palestine Red Crescent Society, a member of the International Red Cross. In order to attend, audience members must show proof of having reached out to their representatives calling for a ceasefire.

Coincidentally, the East Bay surf club Queer Surf, in conjunction with Cinema Iran, will screen the film in Berkeley that same night. El-Hage says the events weren’t coordinated, but are a reflection of a “collective consciousness in this heavy moment.”

El-Hage, who is in the process of applying to medical school, notes that 2.2 million people in Gaza currently don’t have access to food, water, fuel, electricity, medicine and other basic needs. “Why are we calling for a ceasefire? People are lacking basic services and are under siege,” she says. “40% of them are under the age of 14. That’s a crucial humanitarian issue.”

El-Hage continues: “Here in the Bay Area, we love surfing. We love the ocean. We can all approach this with that love and learn about a group of amazing people who just happen to speak another language, and that can lead to taking more action.”

‘Gaza Surf Club’ screens in San Francisco on Friday, Nov. 17 at 7 p.m. For more details, email the organizers. Queer Surf will screen the film Friday, Nov. 17 at 7 p.m. at 2727 Gallery (2727 California St., Berkeley). $10 donation suggested.