« Cinema remains an unparalleled tool for exposing injustices but also to fight stereotypes and reveal the complexity of human societies. » Janine Euvrard, author of Israeliens, Palestiniens que peut le cinéma ?
About the complex subject of the Isreali Palestinian conflict, there is a fruitful production of films reflecting the diversity of the views, ideologies, histories of the conflict defended by the people in Palestine and Israël.
In the interstices of this vast filmography, cultures and resistances sometimes flourish where they are not expected…
Focus on a selection of films reflecting the israelian resistance to the violent colonisation and oppression of the Palestinian people :
Jaffa, the Orange’s Clockwork by Eyal Sivan (2009)
Eyal Sivan is a Israelian film maker now based in Paris. He directed a dozen highly critical documentaries towards the israelian politics.
Jaffa’s orange is globally considered as a symbol of the Israelian economy, based on a storytelling of the success in expanding this culture formerly Palestinian. Jaffa, the Orange’s Clockwork tries to demystify this storytelling by relating a century of the Jaffa’s orange groves history, from one hand to another, and the beginning of a Jewish-Arab history.
Of land and bread by Ehab Tarabieh (2019)
B’Tselem is a Jerusalem-based organization whose stated goals are to document human rights violations in the Israeli-occupied territories, combat denial of the existence of such violations, and help to create a human rights culture in Israel. In 2007, they provided cameras and train Palestinian volunteers in the West Bank to document their lives under the Israeli occupation.It resulted in a series of vignettes about their daily life, their constant state of vulnerability where one’s life is lived under the specter of state violence and the whims of settlers, and a camera is one’s only defense.
ADVOCATE by Rachel Leah Jones, Philippe Bellaïche (2019)
Frequently subjected to harsh criticism in the press and in the public view, Israeli human-rights lawyer Lea Tsemel has defended Palestinians against a host of criminal charges in Israeli courts for nearly five decades, she is a staunch supporter of compassion within the court system. In this documentary, the directors juxtapose two of Tsemel’s cases, one professional and the other personal: the defense of a minor accused of attempted murder and a past case in which she defended her activist husband from an accusation of treason against the state. Advocate exposes the human fallout of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and provides hope for a peaceful resolution.
Since 2014, the organisation Actions in the Mediterranean offers each year to 45 Brussels’ students to make a journey in Israël and Palestine to try on a better understanding of the Isreali-Palestinian conflict and situation, and to meet and discuss with people and organisations resisting stereotypes and injustices through culture and resistance. Director Alexander K. Doyle filmed their journey : discover the documentary Wednesday 10.02 @19:30, online screening free in Belgium !
