January 14th, 2009
Occupation 101
I am not usually one for documentaries since I prefer to get my facts in smaller, more bite sized pieces, but Nathan and I saw one last night that I would encourage anyone who wants to expand their knowledge on the Middle East’s Israeli/Palestinian conflict to watch.
It’s an award winning film that came out in 2007. It is a little over an hour long, thought provoking and well made, with Noam Chomsky, many Israeli and Jewish persons that are against the Israeli policies, U.S. Congressmen and ambassadors, and human rights advocates. It questions some of the American-Israeli relations that have helped make the conflict what it is today…how do you think the modern state of Israel managed to become the world’s ninth-largest nuclear power in the few short decades that it has existed?
It covers the history of the area and of the conflict in the first part of the film, but the part I got the most out of was the second part that covers the current situation. The majority of the footage is taken on location, and I think that though biased to show a specific side of the conflict, it shows a good picture of what is going on right now and especially what the life of the children and young people is like. One of the things that stood out to me was how eloquent and mature even the very young children were, and how they seem so old at 6 and 7 years.
Groups such as CAMERA have been actively against this film, accusing it of being incendiary and anti-Israeli. That’s a bit hypocritical if you ask me, since those kinds of groups are very pro-Israel in the first place. I would guess that both Israelis and Palestinians would say that they are victims, and if that is the case, I think it is important that we give both sides of the story an equal ear and compassion.
I understand the biases as I was raised in a very pro-Israeli church environment, since the Israelis are revered by many Christians for their biblical history, and the conflict is seen as a spiritual war. Whatever your beliefs are about that should not cause you to turn a blind eye to the injustices that are being inflicted (on both sides) from a humanitarian viewpoint.
This is a very controversial issue, and this film does have a Palestinian bias, though I think it tries to be well balanced by being anti-inflammatory and logical. If you haven’t already seen it, I would suggest you do so, and let me know what you think. Do you have any first hand knowledge that has helped you form an opinion on this issue?
You can see the entire video on google video here, and the official site is here.
