Quiet on the set - in Gaza

Photo: The Canadian Press

A Palestinian actor dressed as ultra Orthodox Jew 

Quiet on the set! Surrounded by militant training sites on uprooted Jewish settlement lands, the first movie set in the Gaza Strip is growing, depicting the history-rich, volatile alleyways of Jerusalem's Old City.

The set is the latest effort by the al-Aqsa channel, run by Gaza's Islamic militant Hamas rulers, to kick-start its drama production in the territory and release another series slated to air in the month of Ramadan.

In Gaza, filming footage of Jerusalem and other central locations from the conflict is a challenge.

Gaza's population of about 2 million live in mostly cramped conditions in the coastal sandy territory compared to the rugged mountain terrain of the West Bank, so crews have struggled to film the twisting ancient alleyways of Jerusalem's Old City. And that is how the idea to create a set depicting Jerusalem was born.

The fate of Jerusalem is an emotional issue at the heart of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Israel captured east Jerusalem, home to the Old City with its holy sites sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims, in the 1967 war. Palestinians want the territory for their future state.

Much of the wave of Palestinian attacks that erupted in 2015 originated from tensions surrounding the most sensitive holy site in Jerusalem's Old City.

The hilltop compound is revered by Jews as the Temple Mount, where the two biblical Jewish Temples stood and is the most sacred place in Judaism. It is home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the gold-topped Dome of the Rock, the third-holiest site in Islam after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.

Mohammed Thoraya, the channel's manager, described how the Old City was depicted on set. "We brought something simple of the wall decorations there and — thank God — we could simulate something small of what is there," he said.