Category: Israel/Palestine
With Jewish extremists trying to present Palestinian citizens of Israel as a fifth column, Standing Together is focusing on the de-escalation of those inflammatory messages, reframing the dialogue with their code words: “We’re in this together.”
People are struggling to process the rapidly unfolding events that have taken place since the Hamas attacks in Israel on October 7. There have been demonstrations and counter-demonstrations focusing on both the hostage-taking and...
Rabbi Jill Jacobs of T’ruah gave the final speech. An article in Haaretz recently profiled her as one of the new female leaders challenging the entrenched structure of the male Jewish legacy organizations. She told the demonstrators, “It’s important for me to be here. We’re dealing with a settler government. Occupation is destroying Judaism.” She referenced the Biblical metaphor: “A calf doesn’t have to be golden. It can be a state.”
As the soldier speaks to someone on a military phone, Amro says, “No. This is not true… Don’t lie. Don’t lie. Say the truth.”
Perhaps the top takeaway was Amro’s statement, “American Jews can make a difference.” He added, “I depend on your support. We all have a dream.”
The documentaries by these two filmmakers have the explicit goal of questioning the legacy histories put into play by the Israeli government and hasbara proponents. Following in the footsteps of the Israeli New Historians, directors Karnit Mandel and Assaf Banitt have endeavored to show the Israeli public the realities of “nation-building.”
In 1908, an 18-year-old Weitz left his birthplace of Russia to follow the Zionist dream in the Holy Land. He was appointed the Director of Department of Lands at the Jewish National Fund, known as the “Blue Box fund to buy land,” in 1932.
With a shift in American and Israeli leadership, the armed hostilities between the Israeli government and Hamas in May, and street riots within mixed Israeli cities, Diaspora Jews are beginning to question the traditionally...
Gamal Helad summed it up more plainly. “It’s always easy to have an enemy out there. Unless you plan to accept the other side, there is zero hope for a solution.”
I was able to see a majority of the films. More than a few gave me sleepless nights. There were threads connecting the different movies. In this series, they will be grouped within that context.