UKC

IFSC commentator and EpicTV presenter Matt Groom writes about travelling to Ukraine during the Russian invasion to make the documentary 'Climbing Never Die' for the current Reel Rock 18 film tour. 

On the journey to Kyiv by train, I shared a cabin with a bearded bear of a man who spoke very little English. I woke up to find him injecting insulin in the pale morning light of the swaying carriage. I asked him what Kyiv was like and he shook his head in sadness, unable to find the words. As we got up to leave the train, he pressed an old, heavy head torch into my hand.

'Take it, you will need it…there is not much light,' he said.

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It would be meaningful to see something similar commissioned with regard to the situation Palestinian climbers find themselves in. Despite the global Climb the Wall event, happening soon (12 April) and the letter to the BMC, there's been zero coverage from UKC...

I'm keen to see the film when it comes out.

It's unimportant, but I was struck by how well written the article is, and yet the film title is clearly from a non-English speaker. Maybe there's a reason it is as it is; I'm sure it could've been easily changed.

It does kind of grate. I‘m guessing it‘s a central quote made in the film by a Ukrainian athlete, which they’ve used as the title, in which case inverted commas would have cleared all doubt. We‘ll have to wait until 25.04. to find out though.

I'm intrigued by it . Anyway, weather looks great today . I'm off out climbing and its got absolutly nothing to do with the military, politics or war !

People can dislike my comment all they like. There was a War in Ukraine series on UKC with UKC's logo appearing in Ukrainian flag colours. For Palestine...? A genocide met with silence. And yet, there were some films made about the Palestinian climbing community not so long ago... and an article appeared on UKC about the Wadi climbing gym. There are people who could be contacted if anyone was interested to do so. And there are climbing-related events coming up. So, it would be nice to see a meaningful article produced in solidarity with a people being murdered in their tens of thousands before our eyes.

I know what you are saying and I agree with you.  You cannot draw parallels, they are 2 seperate disparate situations that should end.  The terror attack by hamas was apauling.  Its difficult to read on this website people describing anti war protesters as 'pro hamas'  I posted a link to stop the war coalition on an article so that climbers could get involved and make their anti war sentiment about ukraine heard, it was deleted in seconds, yet on the same thread the phrase 'I hope they get to kill as many russians as possible' stayed there for days.  I hope the film has a refreshing angle on this instead of useing this climbing community forum to whip up jingoistic nationalism. People do not want war. The only way wars end is round a negotiating table. Anti war = pro Ukrainian, Anti war = pro palestinian . Not pro putin, not pro hamas.  I hope the film leaves us realising this . 

The parallels to draw are this: Ukraine, terrible situation, atrocities every day,  enormous loss of civilian life, so UKC creates an article series and a bespoke version of its logo in solidarity. Palestine, terrible situation, atrocities every day, enormous loss of civilian life, so UKC says nothing. Editorial line is....? Does Natalie Berry want to say something, as News Editor? Does UKC as a whole want to say: "Don't worry, we're working on something..." Or... "we're too scared of controversy to dare to talk about something the UN has condemned as a 'probable genocide'" Or... "UKC doesn't care"...? Which one is it? That's all I'm politely asking.

Is there really a need to hijack any mention of Ukraine to bring up another ongoing conflict? There are plenty around the world. You could start a new thread.

Re parallels, the Israel/Palestinian situation comprises of two groups, both with legitimate grievances. Ukraine and Russia are seperate countries. Clearly the situations are different.

The level of ignorance displayed in your synopsis is astounding and deeply patronising to both Palestinians and Israelis. "Two groups" not "two seperate [sic] nations"...?!?! We should talk about what is going on precisely because so many people have such a loose grasp of the situation.

As for "hijacking", what I've written is directly relevant to the coverage of Ukraine by UKC and the solidarity it has explicitly extended to Ukrainians.

I did start another thread about an upcoming climbing event in solidarity with Palestinians, called Climb the Wall, but it was moved to the Politics forum - which is a dungeon of right-wing cranks and the extremely ignorant, which no one in their right mind would want to spend time perusing.

Anyway, I'm out. I'm just disappointed that we know there is a Palestinian climbing community who are facing escalating oppression in the West Bank, whilst a genocide occurs in Gaza, and UKC hasn't written a word now it is politically inconvenient, despite being happy to run articles about this community previously.

I'm ignorant about a great many things, so you could be on to something. I thought the land had been divided up into three parts between two groups. At least that's what I see in the news.

“divided up” you say?

The third map is, I think, the official one. But yes, Israeli activity in the West Bank has been appalling, with, it seems to me, strong parallels with the white settlers in what is now the USA.

On the first picture, I'm guessing the white parts are places where Jewish Palestinians owned land/were living but not I'm sure what the green part represents. 

The white parts in the first map represent Jewish settlements, in a large part from, correct me if I’m wrong, Jewish immigration from Europe to Palestine. The green part was the land lived on by Palestinian Arabs.

It seems clear Palestinians have watched their land disappear and it shouldn’t be a surprise that some of them are p!ssed about it, enough to do nasty things.

I don’t see it as a problem for the BMC to solve.

The first part seems fair enough. 

However, you're saying the green part is one massive Arab village/town/city? It looks suspiciously more like someone has used paint to block fill the rest of an area than anything to do with where arabs lived. 

I rarely go down to the end of my garden. I’d still be p!ssed if my neighbours started annexing it!

Well the Jews bought the land they settled on so it's more like you selling your garden to your neighbours.

That still doesn't address the fact that the map is misleading though. I can't draw your house on a map and then block fill the rest of a random area as belonging to me even though there is no state and I only live on a small percentage of it. 

Ok, you are correct the Palestinian’s don’t have a valid grievance.

I think they do. The West Bank settlements being an obvious example.

I also think the Arabs had their justifications to try destroy Isreal following its inceptions but they lost several times. Egypt and Jordan seem to have made peace with that and now the Arab Palestinians need to accept that too and elect someone not intent on perpetual violence and brave enough to make unpopular decisions.