Two Oscar-nominated Israeli-made
documentaries expose the ethical and political failures of the
occupation
By Mairav Zonszein
It’s no secret that Israel has an image problem, to put it mildly.
From unabated settlement construction in the West Bank infuriating the
international community and eliciting repeated condemnations in the
U.N., to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bellicose approach to Iran
that has strained relations with the Obama administration, to Israel’s
consistent disregard for Palestinian human rights, Israel is one of the
most divisive subjects in international politics and media. At next
month’s Oscar ceremony, that “image problem” will be on prominent
display as two local films centered around the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict and highly critical of Israel are up for nominations in the
best documentary category.
“The Gatekeepers” – an
Israeli/French/Belgian production directed by Israeli Dror Moreh – takes
the audience into the world of Israel’s anti-terror operations since it
assumed control of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967, as told by the very
men who oversaw them. Moreh, who says he is inspired by Errol Morris’
“The Fog of War,” conducts in-depth interviews with six former heads of
Israel’s Shin Bet (the secret internal security service, comparable to
the FBI), whose candid recounting of targeted assassinations, village
raids and prisoner interrogations reveal the ethical and political
failures of Israeli occupation.
“Five Broken Cameras,” a Palestinian/Israeli/French production (
which is currently airing on Hulu),
tells the story of a small West Bank village’s nonviolent struggle
against Israel’s separation wall, settlement construction and military
control, as told through the eyes (and lens) of Emad Burnat, a resident
of Bil’in, which has become a model and international symbol of
Palestinian civil disobedience.
Between 2005 and 2011, Burnat’s
five cameras have all been physically damaged while documenting the
Israel Defense Forces’ violent dispersal methods during weekly protests
against the separation wall built on Bil’in’s lands (which was partially
dismantled and rerouted last year following a 2007 Israeli High Court
ruling). His footage documents routine arrests and night raids in the
village, and the killing of several residents by IDF fire while they
were protesting peacefully. Burnat has been arrested and shot, and in
the film, his wife implores him to stop documenting for fear of another
arrest. It is impossible to come away from this movie without a palpable
sense of Israel’s unjust treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank.
In
“The Gatekeepers,” it is not Palestinians, but senior figures from the
heart of Israel’s security establishment who criticize Israeli policies.
The oldest and most notorious of the interviewees, Avshalom Shalom –
who served as Shin Bet chief from 1981 to 1986 and was forced to resign
after allegedly ordering the killing of two Palestinians terrorists
apprehended after hijacking a bus in 1984 – admits that peace and
security cannot be achieved only through military might. He and the
others say that Israel must find a way to work with the Palestinians to
find a solution. In stark contrast to current government policies and
the general atmosphere in the halls of Israel’s Knesset today, all six
spymasters call on Israel to negotiate with Hamas, Iran and Islamic
Jihad. “In the State of Israel, it’s too great a luxury not to speak
with our enemies,” Shalom says. It’s in the nature of the professional
intelligence man to talk to everyone. That’s how you get to the bottom
of things.”
Both films put Israel in the international spotlight,
sending a clear message that something is very rotten in the Holy Land –
not exactly the image Netanyahu and his government want to project to
the world. The films constitute candid, tragic confessions of what
reality is like on the ground, snapshots of the recent history of
Israel/Palestine – one through the perspective of the occupied, and the
other, the occupier; one, a grass-roots compilation of rough amateur
footage showing civilians going up against a massive army, the other a
sophisticated amalgamation of archival footage and digitally re-created
imagery that exposes the inner workings and downfalls of some of
Israel’s most covert security operations.
The films went largely
under the Israeli media’s radar until the Oscar nominations were
announced last week, despite both receiving numerous awards and
international accolades (among them, “The Gatekeepers” was selected best
documentary by the National Society of Film Critics in the U.S., and
“Five Broken Cameras” won the World Cinema Directing Award at Sundance).
Now headlines in Israel abound with news of the “unprecedented” Israeli
achievement.
Those on the left
stress that it is only thanks to the paucity of dissidents that Israel
can salvage its reputation abroad and still have something to be proud
of, while those on the
far right have gone as far as calling
both
films “pro-Arab” and even condemned them as “Palestinian propaganda
films.” To date, neither film has been awarded an Israeli prize, though
the Foreign Ministry’s website does have a link to a Facebook page
called
CultureBuzz congratulating the films.
Responding
to the nomination, “Five Broken Cameras” director Burnat said, “This is
one of the happiest moments of my life. The village of Bil’in is
celebrating international support of my film.” His Israeli co-director
Guy Davidi also welcomed the news, but noted the complexity in accepting
the recognition. Since the nomination was announced, the Israeli and
American Jewish media have co-opted “Five Broken Cameras” as an Israeli
film, when it is, in fact, as Davidi notes, “first and foremost a
Palestinian film,” but adds, “not that a film should have any
citizenship at all.” Davidi hopes the story of Palestinian nonviolent
struggle will not only circulate around the globe, but also reach
Israeli youth gearing up for their army service. He is trying to
organize independent screenings in high schools, since the Ministry of
Education steers clear of such politically subversive work.
“Gatekeepers
“director Dror Moreh, who considers himself an Israeli centrist, is
also determined to have an impact on the Israeli public. He told me the
main goal of the film is to “put a mirror in front of Israeli society,”
forcing it to confront the “unthinkable actions” taken in its name. The
timing of his film’s release is no coincidence. With elections taking
place next week and polls indicating an even further shift to the right,
with the increasing popularity of an extremist
national-religious-settler bloc that does not support a two-state
solution, Moreh hopes the film will make people think twice about what
direction the country is headed in.
In such a hot political
climate, maybe it shouldn’t come as a surprise that this region is
producing some of the most biting and powerful documentary films around.
On Oscar night, audiences will be witness to two testaments of Israel’s
mechanisms of control over the Palestinian population that Israeli
government spokespeople will have a very difficult time trying to
repackage or explain away. The question is, will it have an effect on
the reality on the ground in Israel?
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