SBS News Australia have a piece on two Sydney-based palestinian Arab brothers hoping to bring surf lifesaving back to Gaza.
When Australian Palestinian man Shamikh Badra formed the Northern Beaches Committee for Palestine, he had one mission — to bring a Nippers program to Gaza.
Around eight years ago, he hoped the classic Australian beach education program for younger children could be taken to Gaza’s 45km shoreline, to offer kids there a fun and educational preparation to become future lifesavers.
We hope to build the first surfing club in Gaza — an Australian-Palestinian surfing club,” Shamikh told SBS Arabic, explaining his intentions when starting the club.
“We want to give hope to the children of Gaza and everywhere.
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Israel’s assault on Gaza dealt a devastating blow to the program, with some of the children and staff members killed by Israeli airstrikes. The location of others remains unknown.
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As the Israeli bombardment continued, Shamikh, who had had some previous film experience, decided he needed to document what was happening.
He enlisted the help of his brother, Majed Badra, who became the director of the film Gaza Nippers: Hope Amid Devastation.
It was first screened at the North Steyne Surf Lifesavers Club earlier this year, and the brothers have plans to show it across Australia and around the world.
For Majed, children’s voices were the cornerstone of the film.“In the beginning, I was focusing on one child because the message of this is that children are not numbers. They are people. They have a future. They have dreams,” Majed said.
“We wanted to focus on that — to focus on one child as an example of many children.
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Despite the losses they have experienced, Shamikh and Majed aren’t giving up on their dream.
“We will continue this project. We will never give up on supporting the children,” Shamikh said.
“We want all the people to be in unity against targeting the children during the war.”
Giving hope to children sounds all well and good. But what SBS have left out of their piece is the fact that one of the brothers – Majed Badra – is quite the antisemitic cartoonist. Here are some examples of his handiwork, from his now-deleted-but-archived website:
It was this antisemitism that saw him barred from entering the US.
And while he seems to be more careful these days not to look overtly antisemitic any more, he did post the below on October 7:
SBS could have uncovered that with a two-minute search, but apparently, due diligence drowns easily when the tide is anti-Israel.
