Presented by New York’s Israel Film Center with funding from Carole Zabar, the Other Israel Film Festival was held at the New York Jewish Community Center with support from numerous small partners from November 2-9.  The guiding themes of the fest: film, change, action reflect the transformational philosophy of the festival ever since its establishment in 2007. Among the more than 60 Jewish film festivals in the United States the Other Israel Film Festival is unique because of its focus on the Israeli and Palestinian societies and other minority groups in Israel. This orientation entails a programmatic concentration on human rights and minority issues, changing relations between Arab / Palestinian and Israeli populations. It includes evolving policies towards minority groups, immigration issues and the influence of socioeconomic changes on the relationship between minority groups and Israel’s population and policy making institutions.

The visual media of film and television programs in documentary and fictional formats serve to enlighten the audience and were reinforced by post screening Q & A sessions and special events.  This entailed the questioning of assumptions and acquisition of new information about the Israeli and Arab / Palestinian societies and the future status of the Palestinian population which now makes up 20% of Israel’s population.  There is no question that the provision of new and controversial knowledge is necessary and shapes opinions and that the transmission belt of information through visual media is essential in our image leaden society. But the question remains how much of an impact critical visual media have on actions which remedy stated problems. It seems that over the last years the support for a Palestinian state by Israelis has weakened and the quest for more settlement space and a greater Israel has grown.

Palestine.Net,  Anat Tel Menelovich, 2017    As in other societies, the use of social media has grown rapidly among Israelis and Arabs and Palestinians. Focusing on Palestinians, Menelovich shows in this documentary that the physical boundaries of the occupied Palestinian territory have been circumvented by the application of social media. Communication and transmission of news has become instantaneous and any event can be edited according to the film maker’s political convictions and transmitted in real time. Oppression of Palestinians can be shown in vivid colors and potential terrorism expanded by teaching through social media how to use knives or vehicles to kill Israelis, the enemy.  There are some voices of moderation suggesting that neither Israelis nor Palestinians have a right to the land they occupy but social media contributes more to the separation of their life spheres and may in part account for the fact that only a few Israelis and Arabs embrace reconciliation as a goal.

A Land Without Borders, Michael Alalu & Nir Baram, 2017   In A Land Without Borders, Baram investigates a possible solution to the Palestinian Israeli conflict through in depth interviews with Palestinians and Jewish settlers which he carried out in his trips to the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Coming from a well-known liberal family active in politics, Baram’s discussions and background knowledge provide sobering answers. For Palestinians the 1948 expulsion of 700,000 people from their homes remains a traumatic experience much more so than the 1967 defeat and the occupation of Palestinian territories and East Jerusalem.  The Oslo peace process has failed, and the United States is held responsible for allowing the creeping takeover of Palestinian land which now has 600,000 settlers on the West Bank and East Jerusalem.  This occupation is eroding democratic processes and amounts to an ethnic cleaning that has been a continuous process ever since 1948 and is also exemplified by the current destruction of Bedouin villages in the Negev to create space for new settlements.  If there were to be change it needs to start from the grass roots but most Israelis do not care about Palestinians. The prospects for their future are grim and the two states solution seems illusionary.  

The Field, Mordechai Vardi, 2017   Vardi’s documentary about the Palestinian Center for Nonviolence established by Ali Awwad on his family’s land at the Gush Etzion Junction between Jerusalem and Hebron illustrates an attempt to reconcile on the grassroots level Palestinians and local settlers. From Awwad’s perspective violence breeds violence generating the hate both groups have developed. A dialogue can be established if the victims on both sides are brought together and a human link is developed. Communication is possible if they can detach themselves from the mantle of victimhood. Awwad suggests that justice resides in the individual and cannot be imposed from the outside.  There is a need to recognize specific circumstances of the other side. For example, Palestinian women suffer from a double oppression as imposed by the male hierarchy they live under and the occupation by Israel. Both sides can only communicate in a meaningful way if they change the dominant narratives. For the settler it is the notion that God gave them the land, for the Palestinian the conviction that the land has been theirs forever.  The Center has brought together thousands of individuals. In the Q&A period Ali Awwad was asked how many Israelis share his view and he estimated that about one percent agrees with him.

Your Honor, Television Drama, 3 episodes, Ron Nimio     The teenage son of a prominent judge running for higher office accidentally kills with his father’s car the son of a local mafia lord and his desperate father tries to cover up the accident with the help of his wife and a friend, a Bedouin police officer who he had trained.  The series is produced in two parts with 12 episodes each and has been acquired for adaptation by the US, Italy, France, Germany and other countries.  This clear headed description of the Israeli criminal justice system has a concise script, with fast moving actions, outstanding acting, and superb cinematography.  The series meets the Other Israel Film Festival’s perspective by integrating minority and social issues in its story of crime and corruption inspired, according to Ron Nimio, by U.S. President Trump and Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu. Elements of  Israel’s ongoing socio-political reality  are essential parts of the story such as the discriminations of Bedouins, crimes, poverty and violence in Arab town sections , the under policing of these sections, decline of social structures, distrust by minorities of the police, existence of parallel authority structures with Bedouins living by their ow set of rules, depiction of both a Bedouin and a  white mafia clan, as well as  Sephardic and Ashkenazi  characters written into the script.

The Other Israel Film Festival has become a valuable addition to New York film festivals providing an important voice to the critical Israel Palestine debate.

Claus Mueller     filmexchange@gmail.com