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Family, friends and profession say goodbye to the journalist presenting her latest work ‘Condemned in Gaza’: a documentary about the difficulties faced by women with cancer in the Gaza Strip in accessing treatment
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Considerate and empathetic; by that rigorous and comprehensive. Vocational and passionate. And above all person. He really believed in what he was doing. That was Ana Alba (Barcelona, 1971-2020). Journalist of those of race, of those who put the human factor at the center of the news. Always with respect, of course. “It was commitment in its purest form”, according to Álex García-Alba, cousin and collaborator of his. He set foot in Bosnia and Kososvo, and for the last decade he was a correspondent for EL PERIÓDICO in Israel. Or Palestine. Always ready to tell what was happening without pretending to be equidistant or complacent with power. The truth and injustices ahead. That came from his grandmother Paquita. Amaya, his sister, that it was she who instilled in them that “we are all equal, that we must respect everyone and help the weakest”.
Values that Ana reflected in her work giving voice to injustices and people who suffer. He put his pen at the service of those who needed it. And his last look, in a documentary about women with breast cancer in Gaza. Doubly punished, or triply, by the tumor and by the Israeli blockade on its territory. But many, also, because of the stigma that an ailment like this supposes in a part of the world that is strongly mortified and closed off (in itself and the rest of humanity) by the work and grace of the State of Israel. “The documentary summarizes how memorable, which is a lot, that Ana’s life had, her ability to look, to observe, to discover stories.” Word of Albert Saez, director of EL PERIÓDICO.
The truth ahead
All this has been discussed this Friday and much more in one of the auditoriums of the Pompeu Fabra University (UPF). Ana died on May 6 of last year, in full confinement and could not be fired. So there was a desire among their relatives, colleagues and friends – from here and also from Jerusalem, Beirut and Damascus, the latter connected ‘online’ – to give him the goodbye he deserved. And what better tribute than premiere his documentary ‘Condemned in Gaza’. The piece he made next to the also journalist Beatriz Lecumberri. I said, Ana believed in what she was doing, and what she did was not done out of heroism, but to explain the truth.
So the documentary Much has to do with the attack on human rights that supposes not being able to receive the adequate cure for a disease. This is what happens to the women of Gaza: the Israeli blockade prevents the necessary medicines or medical equipment from entering the territory; and at the same time it prevents 40% of the Gazans who request permission to travel to Jerusalem or the West Bank to be treated each month from doing so. The result is often death. Ana was clear: “If I had been born in Gaza, I would no longer be alive.” Not for nothing did he also suffer the impiety of cancer.
In front of a latte
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The act of homage – celebrated between the sadness of the irreparable loss and the satisfaction of being able to show the work in which Ana put the little strength that she had left in the last months of her life – she has broken everyone’s voice. Also that of Lecumberri. Moved. A lot of. The Navarrese journalist explained how the idea for the film came about, having a latte in Jerusalem while talking about journalism and, of course, “of stories to tell and the desire to try to tell them in a different way.” It was not easy to start it – problems of financing, lack of means, and access to the Strip and sick women – and it has not been easy to finish it.
Ana did not have time to see it done, although she did not want to abandon it when she relapsed into the disease. “I remember perfectly what he told me: ‘Now more than ever we have to make the documentary.’ So Lecumberri has done it: “My biggest concern is that the final version closely resembles the story we wanted to tell in that cafe in Jerusalem.” Seen the documentary, sure.
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