Most images of Gaza, home to about 1.2 million Palestinians, are war-torn sketches of violence and bombings, not images of surfers and sand. But this is exactly the scene the lens of American filmmaker Alex Klein focuses upon. His camera points toward the edge of the water, where there's freedom in the surf and the sounds of gunfire are muted. "I went to Israel on a skateboard trip four years ago, and I met Arthur Rashkovan, an Israeli pro skater who started the group Surfing 4 Peace," said Klein, a skater from San Francisco. "At that time he brought 10 surfboards into Gaza and has now decided to up the ante and bring in 22 more as a peace offering between the two surfing communities."This inspired Klein to spend two months making his first documentary film, "God Went Surfing With the Devil" following the lives of surfers in Israel and Palestine. Klein prepared to cross into the Gaza Strip, which sits ominously and precariously next to Israel, with optimism. "We weren't humanitarian workers or journalists. We were just young guys with a camera," Klein said. "But, we were very lucky, and we ended up meeting with a retired general in the Israel army, who got us military visas."
"Edward Chase, the director of photography, and I got a ride down to the border from Rashkovan," Klein said. "As we approached the border, Rashkovan said, 'I want you to take down these numbers before you go. I know this guy - call him if you get kidnapped. He can negotiate with anyone.'" With the numbers safely tucked away, Klein crossed the border into war-torn territory. Convincing the Israel forces that surfboards were good for humanity was tricky. "The main problem was that the Israel Navy was concerned that the surfboards constitute as a security threat," Klein said. "But we were saying that you want these young males participating in recreation, as opposed to picking up rifles."
Getting into Gaza proved to be easier than getting out. On his way to one last interview with the surfers - and about two hours before he was supposed to leave - Klein was arrested. "This police officer approached us and then did this whistle thing, and all the Hamas officers with machine guns started crowding around and pointing to our cameras," Klein said. The officers were concerned that he had taken photos of the police station, which is a major security risk. Klein offered to show the officers the photos, but they declined, calling for an armed truck to take him to the police station - "the last place that I wanted to go," Klein said. "Everything everyone warned us about was happening." Making matters worse, Klein's Jewish last name was on his passport, a detail he hoped would go unnoticed. To add to his problems, his car had a 400-year-old archived copy of the Torah, and there was a bottle of whisky in his backpack, which is highly illegal.
The officer walked in and started firing off questions in Arabic. "I think he understood English and was just seeing what we would say," Klein said. "Admittedly, our purpose of making a documentary about surfers did sound ridiculous, and after five minutes he realized that we were far too dumb to be any intelligence agents."
Hence the term "useful idiots"
The scene quickly turned from tense to relaxed. "The officer got a huge smile on his face and said, 'Welcome to Gaza, have you had a nice day? We are very sorry there has been a huge misunderstanding,'" Klein said. Backtracking out of the Hamas police headquarters, past martyr posters, jihad graffiti and heavily armed men, the filmmakers started their way out of Gaza.
Klein's not saying what happened to the 22 surfboards. "You're going to have to see the film. It's interesting how things played out," he said.