The idea for the documentary Mourning in Lod came from Sheila Nevins, an American television producer and considered the doyenne of documentary filmmaking. She had spotted an article in the New York Post about a Jewish Israeli, Yigal Yehoshua, who was killed by Arab rioters in 2021. Immediately after his death, his family donated one of his kidneys to an Arab woman.

When Nevins, who would end up co-producing the film, reached out to Israeli filmmaker Hilla Medalia, “We thought this would be a short, kind of sweet story of hope,” Medalia recalled in a Zoom interview from her apartment in Tel Aviv.

And to some extent, Medalia and Nevins were correct. There is hope in this story about two murders in May 2021 that ultimately connect three families. But there is also sufficient material to get your blood boiling, no matter your views on Israel.

Lod is one of several mixed Arab-Jewish cities in Israel where the two groups coexist peacefully—at least on the surface. “You also have tension,” Medalia explained. “Extreme right wingers go into these places and try to take a stake, to make them more Jewish.”

As explored in the documentary, in May 2021, as Hamas terrorists fired rockets into Israel and clashes between Jews and Arabs rocked Lod, a group of Jewish extremists, at least three of them armed, took to the streets of the city. There was a confrontation, and an Arab man, Musa Hassuna, was shot and killed. It is unclear what, if anything, he did to provoke the attack.

And any parent will sympathize with Hassuna’s father, Ahmed, who describes wanting to break into his son’s casket ”and lay with him. What’s left for me in this life?”

But sadly and unsurprisingly, that was not the end of the violence. The bloodshed continued the day after Hassuna’s murder. Arabs rioted in the streets. One threw a rock at the car that Yehoshua was driving. It struck him on the head, gravely wounding him.  He was able to drive home before losing consciousness for the last time, and the film includes video from a security camera that shows his car rolling to a stop in a parking lot near his house.

Medalia was able to film the Hassuna and Yehoshua families several weeks after their loss. Her on-camera interview with Hassuna’s widow, Marwa, is heartbreaking. She describes how their young daughter, Milla, had begged, “Take me to him. I’ll save him.”

The film also describes how, with Yehoshua on life support, his family collectively decided on a course of action that they believe he would have approved. They would take him off life support and donate his organs.

The day after the Yehoshuas’ decision, Randa Aweis, a 58-year-old Christian Arab woman living in East Jerusalem, received a call to come to the hospital immediately for a kidney transplant. For the past nine years, she had traveled three to four times a week to Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem for dialysis treatment for kidney disease. But her condition had deteriorated, and she urgently needed a new kidney.  

The surgery, performed by Dr. Abed Khalaileh, director of Hadassah Medical Organization’s Kidney Transplant Service, was successful.

Medalia also captures the Yehoshuas’ powerful expressions of grief. Yigal’s widow, Irina; his two children; and his brother, Efi, all speak about his kindness and love for everyone, regardless of background.

But some Israeli reactions to the Yehoshuas’ generosity were vile. After news reports on the transplant were posted to social media, hateful commenters damned the family for allowing the kidney to save an Arab life. The Yehoshuas “were really scared,” Medalia said in her interview with Hadassah Magazine. “Things were really tense.”

Worse was the police reaction to the two murders. There had been surveillance video of the Israeli attacks against the Arabs, enough so that the police could further investigate who had shot Hassuna. But to this day, there has been no progress in the investigation. The three suspects who were brought in were eventually released due to political interference, according to the film. “There is no question that the guy with the flag”—security camera footage of him is shown in the film—“shot him,” said Medalia. The police, she said, know who he is. The film explains that he had claimed that he was acting in self-defense. “Maybe he’s innocent,” Medalia said, “but they closed the case before it was even brought to court.”

In contrast, in Yigal Yehoshua’s case, eight people were arrested and charged with murder and terrorism. All are still in prison awaiting a trial. “Look, whoever killed Yigal should pay the price,” Medalia said. “But eight people threw one rock? What about justice for Musa?”

The film provides some reason for optimism, describing the good that can come from tragedy. Aweis was sufficiently recovered from her transplant surgery to attend a memorial service for Yehoshua 30 days after his death. Unsure of their welcome, she and her family sat in the car until mourning family members came and escorted Aweis to a table of honor where they all sat together. It was inspiring and hopeful.

It is the same for the Hassuna family. Yigal Yehoshua and Ahmed Hassuna had known each other. The families remain close and are collaborating to ease tension in the area. In fact, Ahmed Hassuna interceded with locals on the day of his son’s funeral to avoid altercations with the police.

In interviewing members of both families about one of the most difficult moments in their lives, Medalia’s work shows great sensitivity and prowess in eliciting honest and moving answers to her questions.

But what does it all mean? As explained in a coda, additional footage available at most film festival showings. Medalia gathered together the Yehushua, Hassuna and Aweis families about two years after the events and filmed them. The three families are still in touch and still hopeful. In fact, the footage shows that they had become so familiar with each other that Aweis felt comfortable suggesting that Marwa consider remarriage.

During the coda, Medalia is asked by someone off-camera about the film’s message. “Sometimes you don’t need a conclusion,” she replies. “The people watching, you let them decide how it concludes.”

I’m not sure what to conclude about Mourning in Lod, which was completed before the Hamas attack on October 7. The film’s sound designer, Lior Weitzman, was murdered by a terrorist that day while riding a bike near his hometown of Sderot.

It seems with every step forward, there are two steps back.

Mourning in Lod in now streaming on Paramount+ and is making the round of Jewish film festivals this year.

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Curt Schleier, a freelance writer, teaches business writing to corporate executives.