Claus Mueller

The 12th annual Other Israel Film Festival was held from November 1-8 at the Manhattan Jewish Community Center (JCC) with additional screenings at three other venues. The JCC is the home of the Carole Zabar Center for film and serves as an essential resource for Israeli films and its expanding film industry supporting the distribution of Jewish and Israeli themed productions. It provides a streaming platform for film and television programs, organizes the Other Israel film festival, and related film programs. The Other Israel Film Festival has assumed a unique and original place among the more than 60 Jewish and Israeli film festivals held in the United States each year. The Other Israel Film Festival is the only continuing platform with the mission of fostering communication about problems of the Israeli and Palestinian societies and other minority groups in Israel through visual communication and related events. The American audience attending the films and panels has a unique learning opportunity about critical issues faced by Israel and possible but elusive solutions. In the opening words of Carole Zabar, who established the festival 12 years ago, “We dream that Israel’s Jewish and Arab populations will come to know each other and live in harmony. Our hope is that these films will inspire introspection that leads to meaningful discussions and steps towards peace in the Middle East.”

2018 has become a critical year for unhampered communication about latent and open conflicts, discrimination, and threats to democratic values. It is the first year that the Palestinian and Arab  populations in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza have reached the same size as the Jewish population of Israel, including the 450,000 settlers in the West Bank. During the same year the Knesset passed the Nation-State Law codifying that Israel is the nation state of the Jewish people and that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. It abolished  Arabic as an officially recognized state language equal to Hebrew and favored Jews and Judaism of those living in Israel, no longer upholding guarantees of equality for all as spelled out in Israel’s Declaration of Independence.  One clause of the new law specifies that settlements must be Jewish only.  Over the last few years, fissures in the relationship between Jewish communities in the United States and Israel have become more visible, especially for younger reform and conservative Jews. There is a growing gap between the democratic liberal values they tend to share and Israel’s dominant authoritarian orientation with religious overtones. 

The Other Israel Film Festival articulated these issues at a crowded panel, Jewish + Democratic: The Nation-State Law + American Jews, covering the impact of the new law.  The question of Israel’s ability to remain Jewish and democratic was not answered against the background of skepticism, though grassroots community work was exemplified by some comments and documentaries. Though an Israeli diplomat was in the audience, the festival was not able to recruit a speaker favorably presenting the Nation State Law to the audience.  It is noteworthy that this festival has been able retain its mission while refusing funding from corporate and private sector donors.

Partnership with other organizations supports the expansion of the festival and its program.  With more than 4,000 tickets sold for screenings and events the 2018 edition was the largest thus far growing to include productions on discrimination against women and continuing to explore the meaning of being part of a minority.  The festival presented ten features and six short from more than 200 reviewed films.    The festival also organized six special events.  Iris Zaki received the Bob Simoon award for her documentary UNSETTLING.

Tzahi Grad’s 2017 feature film THE COUSIN provides a well-developed perspective on how every day Israelis from a small community change their attitudes toward a young semi – skilled Palestinian worker, Fahed, and his liberal employer, Naftali, when the worker is suspected of having sexually molested a Jewish girl.  Grad, a professional well-known actor and writer provides a convincing performance as Naftali on par with Ala Dakka as Fahed, the handyman.   Grad shows the latent racism underlying Israeli-Palestinian relations as demonstrated in the microcosm of the small community which seems to be moving towards killing the handyman.  Even the liberal Naftali, who works on a reality TV series supporting Israeli Arab cooperation, wavers in his perception of Fahed after his wife threatens to leave him. Other members of the community get also become radicalized.  There is no evidence that Fahed victimized the girl other than his presence near her, but the rumor of a Palestinian having sexually assaulted a Jewish girl is sufficient to fire up emotions. The result is the hunting down of Fahed. He is attached with Naftali at one point labelling Fahed as a lying Arab.  The transformation of mostly local males from their normal existence into hateful vigilantes is superbly enacted and one wonders how many others share the same underlying racism.

MEGIDDO by Itzik Lerner is a documentary based on a three part series completed in 2017 which was financed in 2014 by the New Israel Fund and shown on Israeli television last year. The series has been the most controversial television program in Israel. Megiddo is a large high-security prison with more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners and permission was granted to film there for the first time with unprecedented access to prison officials and individual leaders elected by the prisoners. The director of the series lived in the prison for several months and his crew spent more than a year there.  Megiddo houses Palestinians who have killed Israelis, many inmates who are under administrative detention, and captured Fatah and Hams officers.  Lerner succeeded in showcasing the human face of Megiddo, the complicated interaction between prison officials and Fatah and Hamas commanders, and the everyday life of the prisoners who appear to be disciplined and self-constrained. Overall, the image of guards, prisoners, and commanders on both sides presented in the film is very sympathetic and little seems to indicate conflicts. To the contrary, as distinct from documentaries about US prison facilities Megiddo is well run and shows relatively harmonious interactions.

Relatives of individuals killed by Hamas or Fatah mounted strong objections against the series due to their perception that its portrayal of the inmates was too positive and there was nothing was included about the victims of terrorism.  The minister of Culture and Sports, Miri Regev, stated without having seen the series that its portrayal of the inmates as human beings could strengthen future terrorism.  Her ministry has also requested that Israeli film foundations provide the names of those who have approved or rejected scripts and funding in recent years.  The New Fund for Cinema and TV has been forced to identify those who approved the budget for Megiddo and the amounts provided.  Observers note that this top down attempt by a governmental agency to interfere in film and television productions may be the first step towards complete control of those who are critical of its policies.  In that context, it is noteworthy that the Israeli parliament has just proposeda bill that would punish journalist with prison sentences if their recording of actions by Israeli Defense Force troops “undermines the sprit the army” Israel’s press freedoms is now ranked by Reporters Without Borders at 112 out of 179 countries, below Kuwait and Uganda. For Palestine the rank is 146.

THE ANCESTRAL SIN, a 2017 s documentary feature by David Deri, who comes from a Moroccan family that experienced  the forced settlement policies he depicts, was for me the most important film of the festival. The film triggered great interest whenever I discussed it. Though most knew of the discrimination of Sephardic Jews from Arab countries by the Ashkenazi power structure dominating Israel in its first two decades, few had ever seen the discrimination documented. Deri’s family was forced to settle in Yeruham, a development town in the Negev, as part of the policy to disperse Sephardic Jews from Arab countries in sparsely settled former Arab areas which opened up in the war of independence and subsequent armed conflicts.  This policy was guided by clear demographic and military goals. Because most Israelis lived in metropolitan urban areas and a large number of newly established moshavim (small agricultural settlements) were left by the immigrants after they were moved, an official policy had to be designed.  Forced settlement in new development towns would help to overcome the refugees’ desire to live next to relatives in urban areas.  David Deri was able to reconstruct the story of Israel’s settlement of Sephardic Jews by accessing formerly secret files and summaries of meetings by policy makers, by interviewing academic planning and demographic experts, and by speaking to the victims of the official policies. As expected, the systematic forced settlement was based on well-organized policies developed by Ashkenazi officials. Records of their meetings clearly showed a systemic bias. Their Jews from Arab countries were labeled as ignorant and illiterate, having no culture, being more Arabic than Jewish, and in the words of Ben Gurion, were worthy of justified discrimination. Further policies penalizing settlers of developments who left were instituted, such as loss of the right to work and to be housed. They even could be asked to compensate the state of Israel for the expenses they incurred. When in the Arab struggles for independence Jewish groups were subject to massive antisemitism more than 200,000 Jews left for Israel. On arrival, they could not choose were they wanted to live and on leaving their ships they were brought directly to development towns which were often not ready to be inhabited. They were accommodated in public housing. As Deri shows from the recorded protocols of the Jewish Agency meetings, all proceedings were confidential.  When in following years Ashkenazi Jews from Poland arrived in Israel, they could live wherever they wanted, and certainly did not select the Negev but urban areas. They were housed in apartments they could acquire, an option not available for those living in public housing. When Deri showed his documentary to the victims of the forced settlement policy, now grandparents, the reaction was mixed. Some viewers articulated anger and frustration, while others noted that, in the end, these policies have led to Israeli successful if one looks at her current position as a major regional power.

Claus Mueller  filmexchange@gmail.com