The conflict that is once again shaking the Israeli and Palestinian communities is inhumane. The human losses on both sides are terrible. It is a story that has been going on for decades and whose origins date back several centuries. The documentation is available for better understanding. They also allow us to put a face to the atrocity. And about hope. Even if he is small now. We also note that the fighting from the 1960s and 1970s to the present day has had a major impact on Israeli fiction series. The homeland, In therapy, then other newer ones that tackle the tension head on. We must not remain indifferent.
documentaries
GAZA
Photo provided by Prime Video
This documentary, produced in 2019, testifies to the daily life of about ten protagonists of all ages, who take a clear look at the territory in which they live and, I would even say, in which they are trapped. They are taxi drivers, fishermen, primary carers, young people, children. One of them describes well the open-air prison without drinking water, where they have only had electricity for four hours a day since the blockade began. Despite the difficulties of feeding themselves, the spontaneous bombings and the opacity of borders, they still manage to smile. They tell us about life before. A good life. Before Hamas took power, neighboring countries broke off relations. Some adults feel guilty for giving birth to children in a society with no dreams, no hope and no future, stuck in a cycle of endless conflict. Some young people have already experienced three wars. Here’s another one. This visually poetic documentary shows us people who, despite the pain, have no other ambition than to live a normal life, raise their families and provide them with security. They are faces of the horror of an ongoing conflict.
► Broadcast on Prime Video
BORN IN GAZA
Photo provided by Netflix
This documentary was filmed in 2014, just as another clash was sparking between the State of Israel and the paramilitary forces of Hamas and Islamic Jihad. He also uses a very sophisticated filmmaking style that contrasts with the harshness of the subject matter. It is young people who are given the floor. The Palestinian territory is in ruins. The children search the rubble for useful goods that they can sell for little money. The population is starving. These kids don’t understand why we’re picking on them since they’re busy growing vegetables and not bombs. Your life will change forever. The whistling of rockets, the gray of collapsed buildings, the pain of hospital treatment, the grief for lost loved ones, an everyday life that defies these stolen childhoods. The conflict they were born into is anything but a game.
► Streamed on Netflix (with English subtitles only)
JEWS AND MUSLIMS – SO FAR, SO CLOSE
Photo provided by Arte France
Long before the conflict we are experiencing, ARTE France produced a four-episode miniseries in 2013 recounting 14 centuries of Jewish and Muslim history. This shows to what extent the tensions are not new. The first episode traces the birth of Islam. The third episode puts into perspective the birth of nationalism and the rise of anti-Semitism, which led to the division of Palestinian territory in favor of the Jews. The fourth episode highlights what led to a series of clashes in which civilians are victims of an endless but also delicate and complex conflict. Animations, archives and reports from specialists follow each other.
► Rent on Apple TV
GRASS RIDGES IN DRY LANDS
Photo provided by NFB
In every conflict, people courageously stand up to care for others and positively advance society. Documentary filmmaker Helene Klodawsky always finds strong characters who are driven by social justice. Despite coming from countries often affected by strife and a religious dictatorship led by a small group, the majority of residents of Israel, Palestine and Jordan strive for peace and a harmonious life. This documentary, filmed in 2015, features activists and human rights activists. There are lawyers, psychologists, volunteers of all stripes. They want a lasting democracy. It took Helene Klodawsky five years to make this documentary that takes a different look at these people who endure wars and, certainly resilient, have to constantly nourish the space for a better life through small gestures and small advances that are often destroyed and then be rebuilt. Field work that we hear little or nothing about.
► Broadcast on Prime Video or available to rent on the NFB platform nfb.ca
Fictions
OUR BOYS
Photo provided by HBO
This series is based on events that sparked the Gaza War in June 2014. This resulted in the kidnapping and murder of three young Jews by Hamas. Then, in retaliation, a young Palestinian man was burned to death. It took the series’ creator, Hagai Levi, known for his series Be Tipul (In Therapy) and The Affair, four years of research to document the events. He teamed up with an Israeli author, Joseph Cedar, and a Palestinian author, Tawfik Abu-Wael, to direct the project. By focusing primarily on Mohammad’s assassination, they destabilized the Israeli public and provoked anger and a call for a boycott from Prime Minister Netanyahu. Archive images mix with fiction. We try to explain what drives people to commit such crimes. A tough series that unfortunately sheds light on the current conflict and the motivations of those who caused it.
► Airing on Crave
FAUDA
Photo provided by Netflix
“Chaos” means Fauda in Arabic. This is the title of this Israeli spy series, which is in its fourth season. It is inspired by the experience of its two creators: the actor Lior Raz and the journalist Avi Issacharoff. Three weeks ago you committed to helping civilian victims of Hamas. In the series we follow a special unit of the Israeli Defense Forces whose task is to infiltrate the Arab community. In the first season, the unit tracks down a believed-to-be-dead Hamas fighter who is hiding in the West Bank. The second season puts the spotlight on a Hamas operative who now works for the Islamic State. The third season takes place in Gaza. In the 4th, threats increase within the Shin Bet (Israeli domestic intelligence service) and the unit is sent abroad. We are not surprised that the series is facing a boycott campaign over racist propaganda against the Palestinian people, while the production claims to offer a nuanced view of the conflict. Hollywood executives even had to sign a letter of support for the channel. The series has won numerous awards and is ranked No. 8 on The New York Times’ list of the best foreign series of the decade.
► Streamed on Netflix
VALLEY OF TEARS
Photo provided by HBO Max
This Israeli miniseries tackles an always sensitive topic. The writers even hesitated before embarking on the project because they were too concerned. It reports from the perspective of seven protagonists about the three-day fighting in northern Israel in 1973 during the Yom Kippur War. It was six years after the Six-Day War in 1967. The country was devastated when Egyptian and Syrian forces attacked it. It was a day of celebration and prayer. The human losses were terrible. The local press claimed that no other work captured the realism and trauma of that war so well. It is the most expensive series produced in Israel.
► Available to rent on Apple TV