God Went Surfing With the Devil examines a nu-humanitarian approach to utilize surfing to foster micro-dialogues aimed toward mending national (and in turn global) tensions in Israel between Jewish-Israeli, Arab-Israeli and Palestinian communities.

The film follows Arthur Rashkovan (Surfing for Peace) and Matt Olsen (Explore Corps) in their efforts to bring surfboards and surfing equipment to Israel with the goal to enter and deliver surfboards into Gaza during the 2008-2009 siege. I would call their effort nu-humanitarianism because even though they rely on NGO sponsorship to gain permission to enter Gaza, Arthur and Ben highlight criticisms of modern humanitarian structure while promoting surfing as an unorthodox relief solution that can assist toward a conflict resolution between communities.

Matt Olsen mentioned after a screening during the 2010 Santa Barbara International Film Festival that one significant problem for communities is that the physical geography of Israel does not reflect the mental geography that is perceived to exist and divide groups. To Palestinians, a town like Ashkelon or Sderot seems hours away when it’s a matter of minutes from Gaza, while to Israelis, Gaza seems worlds away. This sense of separation is further exacerbated by the lack of a public discursive sphere, that has been replaced by state channels of accusatory statements hurled back and forth by either side. It is this lack of constructive dialogue that the nu-humanitarianism of the film wishes to correct.

Just as walls separate Gaza from Israel, there is an invisible partition that controls the coastline. This has been the most devastating for Palestinian fisherman who have witnessed their waters continue to decrease from 20 nautical miles offshore to 12 and now with the ongoing blockade since 2007, down to 3 nautical miles offshore. The blockage also means a greater presence by the Israeli navy who monitor the coastline. Consequences for defying this partition were also mentioned in the film: surf beyond a certain point and chances are you’ll be shot.

These conditions to not bode well for the relief effort since surfers in Gaza cannot intermingle in Israeli lineups. But it does present to the world that Palestinians in Gaza want to construct a space of peace.

Image from GazaSurfClub.com

For members of the Gaza Surf Club, surfing also provides an outlet for youth and residents to feel temporary relief from the hardships of living in Gaza. This is very similar to what Isaiah Walker has pointed out as the ka po’ina nalu or surf zone that Hawaiians used as a space to construct free identity and association that would negate colonial influence.

While the space may yield Palestinians to not be subjugated to the terms of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it does not immediately mend the conflict and such a space may elevate animosity and spawn a future localism that could come when restrictions are lifted. However this is something that is also being tested in the film with Jewish-Israeli surfers in Tel Aviv and Arab-Israeli surfers in Jaffa. Despite what tensions that might be perceived to exist, surfing constructs an apolitical space where ethno-political claims are absolved and the focus is shifted towards the community of surfers as a whole identity.

If localism doesn’t permeate along ethnic, religious or political lines then what is happening in Tel Aviv/Jaffa? Aside from harboring less extreme attitudes than the rest of the country, the case is a more telling indicator that localism is a product of social relationships to scope of property.

In Israel surf breaks are few and far between. However it’s scarcity of waves in Israel that trumps localism. This goes against the prevailing thought that scarcity should increase competition and in turn increase hostility between actors competing to gain from the same resource. Instead it’s a free for all to get waves, with lineups that would make most surfers cringe. Cramped lineups achieve a common space that defies the mental and physical proximities that entrench communities in Israel.

However this illustrates another crucial problem. With a lack of surf breaks and surf being fickle in Israel how often can common spaces convene and how many will be uneffected by being outside this space? This seems to be the larger task at hand, how can this construction of discursive spheres shift around Israel to locations without a coastline? According to direct Alexander Klein, he got the idea whole the film after he shot a skateboarding trip to Israel, and this is where I’d be curious to see how this idea shifts in the realm of similar activities that evolve elsewhere. Could skateboarding, bmx, street art/graffiti, music subcultures around these also create similar spheres the way other subcultures evolved out of the California surfing subculture?