The Jewish/Palestinian Question: Cinema That Seeks Broader Strokes
A Review by Rachel Gordon
01/25/2006
When you grow up Jewish in America (I can't speak for other countries) there is a constant undertone in all of your temple education of the evils inflicted upon you for your religious beliefs. Between Hitler and the Palestinian threat, you are taught that you are a victimized race of people slowly dying off. Not only should you marry Jewish and provide a Jewish home for children so that the traditions do not fade, but if you do not participate in this particular mentality and are not willing to fight for the Jewish State of Israel at all costs, you often receive sad and angry stares from the generations before you. You are jokingly, and permanently, called a self-hating Jew by your peers.
These fundamental teachings also promote you to see Palestinians as an inherently vicious people. You see films and televised newscasts about terrorism and attacks on poor Israelis. You read about bombings and immediately decide that the provocateurs deserved what they got. You see that Israel does retaliate to some degree, and you might ponder if you're only receiving a sample of action that can be easily digested. You acknowledge that the compulsory military training at a youthful age is sad and appreciate that you do not live in Israel so you will not be forced to hold a gun yourself.
Somewhere in recent memory, for no reason that I can currently point at, I began to be truly distressed at the ideas I'd been fed and swallowed with little question. I wondered if both Israelis and Palestinians remembered why they were fighting each other, or if it was some knee-jerk reaction that could simply not be redirected. I couldn't help but think that after generations of fighting and death, the land in question would simply still be there, no matter how many casualties were consumed in the process. And if Palestinian children are taught in the same manner that Jewish children are, when does the conflict end, and how.
I've been even more distressed at how media and the filmmaking community have handled this situation, up until the past couple of years. Schindler's List, among others, was an enormous success, and every year Oscar™ nominates at least one documentary focusing on Jews and the Holocaust. But these films focus solely on Jewish struggle, not taking into account the other victims of persecution. And in centering public attention on Jews, it creates an even further divide with Palestinians, and promotes an enlarged “villains” status around them.
Thankfully, several films lately provide a larger context and depth to the situation that have gained critical attention and helped to promote a broader mentality that encourages peaceful negotiation instead of further combat. The three films I'm going to focus on are the documentary Promises, and the dramatic re-enactments Paradise Now and Munich.
Promises was nominated for an Oscar™ four years ago, though it did not win. The filmmakers sought to introduce Jewish and Palestinian children to each other and start some basis of friendship based on their being peers. The process of initial prejudice through to an enjoyable afternoon together is not an easy one, but when accomplished your heart soars with pleasure that these young people worked to see beyond the surface.
The film also tracks the children over a several-year period from that wonderful afternoon, which had ended with a heart-wrenching moment when one of the boys cries because, as he says, it won't be long before they are to see each other as the enemy. Seeing these good-natured souls switch their opinions out of societal force of habit, and the daily conflicts that have ensued, is truly painful. It's a powerful film that places blame where it should be, on societal constructs placed at birth, instead of basing it on who has the right to hold a piece of land.
Paradise Now screened at the New York Film Festival this past year, and has gained art-house distribution in the United States through Warner Brothers' Independent Pictures. I walked in expecting to hate it, sick of all the War on Terror talk perpetuated by the news, not realizing until I was watching it that that very news was also prejudicing me from even exploring the motives for actions of people I didn't fully understand.
It's technically a fictional story, but based on a culmination of real life experiences, about the lives of two brotherly friends as they train to become suicide bombers. Watching them go from normal, functioning members of their households to being selected as the next “heroes” produces an entirely new version of “terrorists” than the ones we see televised every day. It's a reminder that, above all the horrible actions we hear about, the people who are committing them are indeed human like everyone else, questioning their rights and beliefs as the rest of us do.
They struggled with their new assignment in life, knowing that this practice of destruction was worshipped in their families but unsure of whether or not to take part in it. If they did not take part in it, would their loved ones be in danger, or perhaps ostracized? The beautiful dissenter in the ranks, the love interest of one of the men, boldly and eloquently explains why violence is only leading to further violence and there will be no ultimate victory for either side.
Finally, we come to Munich, a film that, for the first time in years that I can remember, made me proud to both be a Jew and be involved in the film industry. It pleasantly astounded me that the same Jewish man who directed Schindler's List, Steven Spielberg, would take on a situation and provide both factions of a complex political story, seeming to side with nobody. Rarely, if ever, do I hear of Jewish Americans questioning the actions of Israel, or noting or commenting that a particular action that country has taken wasn't entirely justified. I'm immensely more thankful that he took on this project because his name immediately provides a certain respectability for craft and storytelling. Had anyone else helmed the film, it wouldn't get nearly the exposure it has.
As already publicized, Munich reconstructs assassinations financed by the Israeli government of 11 Palestinian terrorists who were supposed to be responsible for the deaths of Israeli Olympic athletes during the 1972 Munich games. Five random strangers who have different talents are given instructions to go track down a list of names and kill them, with a constant supply of money that is to be found in a bank's box. They are chosen because they are not known in the intelligence community and easily blend into almost any environment.
Though hired gunmen, they still have a code of ethics to follow, both handed to them “no civilians”, and accrued from personal preference, as in when they delay a target's detonation because his little girl is still in the apartment. There is fierce and intelligent debate about the people they are sent after and whether or not there is actual evidence against them. One participant quietly cries that their actions no longer feel righteous. Another wonders out loud if their work is doing much good, as the deaths will only put new people in the same positions of power just destroyed.
One of the most startling and powerful moments of Munich for me was Avner's rejection from his superior after much hard work and personal sacrifice. I walked out of the theater in a daze of profound agitation that nothing was ever enough to cure the ills of an overwhelming system that utilizes patriotism to ensnare working-class pawns to its will. Israel was not, and is not, alone in this practice, it happens everywhere on Earth, and yet this quiet exchange was more depressing and mind-blowing than any other similar filmic moment I've ever seen.
These films have provided me with some hope that there could be serious interest and discussion about war, about the ethics we hold so dear as to justify death for them, and about the information we are fed by authority – be it familial or governmental – that we should seek to explore beyond news feeds and magazine articles. From the eyes of children, from the eyes of those we'd like to assume are “the enemy”, and from those whose work we've grown to respect, has come a triumvirate of media that, in my humble eyes, places human ideology and equality first and foremost.
© Copyright ToxicUniverse.com 01/25/2006
