Oct 15, 2021: Palestinian director Ameen Nayfeh says he is proud to have captured his personal struggle to cross an Israeli military post to visit his dying grandfather. But he did not expect his short film to have a wide audience.

That all changed for Nayfeh on Thursday, when Netflix launched a new Palestinian film collection, the first of its kind by a major streaming service, that includes his award-winning Short story the Crossing.

Commenting on the honour while talking to Reuters, Nayfeh said, “This is why we make films, because we want our stories to travel, we want people to know about us,”

“Now when you type Palestine in the search button on Netflix, you will see so many different titles that you can watch. Before, when I would type Palestine I would get Israeli titles.”

Netflix’s new Palestinian collection, titled Palestinian Stories, is made up of 32 award-winning films that are either directed by Palestinian film-makers or tell Palestinian stories, the company said in a press release on Tuesday.

“The diversification of our content sits close to my heart as Netflix works to become the home of Arabic cinema,” said Nuha El Tayeb, a spokesperson for Netflix.

Many films tell the story of Palestinian life in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza, occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East War, and the Palestinians striving for a future independent state.

Israel has maintained military posts in the West Bank, citing security concerns. Palestinians say roadblocks severely restrict their movement throughout the region. Prior to the filmmakers, Palestinian musicians began reaping the benefits of streaming to a global audience after launching Spotify’s music streaming service in the Middle East and North Africa in 2018.