Six Floors to Hell
Geha Junction, Tel Aviv, a busy neighbourhood. Here, hundreds of Palestinians live in a derelict underground multi-storey car park, part of an abandoned, unfinished shopping mall.
They slip into Israel to find work, to try to bring home a small wage. Most nights of the week they stay here, in subhuman conditions, six floors below ground in the darkness amid dripping water, rubble and filth. Jalal tolerates it because he’s saving for his wedding, and needs money to repair the roof of his new house – and this is his only source of cash.
Ghostly voices emerge from the darkness, people joke and laugh, the sounds echoing ominously through this strange underground world.
But despite the conditions, they try to stay human – and they try to remember why they’re here.
“In the dark”, says Jalal, “the only thing left is to think about love”.
