Introdaction
Palestine and Israel: Depicting Aggression and Occupation from Multiple Perspectives
In the spring of 2002, during military operations in the West Bank, the Israeli army laidsiege to the Balata refugee camp and invaded the Jenin refugee camp. Over the course of twoweeks, the lives of Palestinians facing siege, destruction, and death were documented oncamera. Two years later, a group of young Israeli ex-soldiers and officers held a photoexhibition in Tel Aviv. Through the exhibition, entitled "Breaking the Silence," the ex-soldiersconfessed to acts of aggression during their duty in occupied territories, as members of what iscalled "the most moral army in the world." Placed in positions of absolute authority in theoccupied territories, the young soldiers had increasingly lost their sense of humanity, ethics,and morality---they had become "monsters," they said. Seeking to regain their own humanity,and hoping to contribute to the revival of an Israel itself afflicted by the occupation, they haddecided to speak out.
Director Doi Toshikuni has been covering Israel and Palestine as a journalist for more thantwenty years. This feature-length documentary was crafted from several hundred hours offootage. It depicts, through the lives of the participants, both the devastation visited upon thePalestinian people by the Israeli armed forces and the effects on Israeli soldiers of participatingin the structural violence known as occupation. Palestinians, resolutely surviving what oftenseems to be hopeless oppression, and young Israelis, persisting in speaking out despiteaccusations of betraying their country. The film transcends the frame of the Palestine-Israelproblem to address, from multiple perspectives, a subject of universal significance.
Trailer
Director's Statement
When addressing Israeli aggression and occupation, reporting solely on the damage inflictedon Palestinians tells but one aspect of the story. I believe it is only through conveying themotives, action principles, and psychology of the side that engages in aggression andoccupation that a picture of that reality emerges with depth and complexity.
This is the reason that, after more than twenty years of reporting on Palestine, I decided toexamine the psychology of the Israeli soldiers who carry out the aggression and occupation.This difficult task was only possible because of the courage of the former soldiers of Breakingthe Silence.
However, their story is not something foreign to us Japanese. The testimony of the formerIsraeli soldiers provides a valuable lens for us to reexamine ourselves as a people with ahistory of aggression, who to this day live with the unresolved legacy of the past. When theaction and words of these former Israeli soldiers is overlaid on the behavior of the formerJapanese soldiers, they are not simply addressing the problems of a far-off land but insteadproviding a mirror that reflects our own image as a people that once invaded and occupiedother countries. This is the meaning for me, as a Japanese, of making a film about theexperiences of former Israeli soldiers.
But this film will undoubtedly reach beyond my personal motivations. Americans will hearechoes of veterans of the wars in Vietnam and Iraq in the Israeli experience, Germans will seeconnections to the soldiers they have sent to fight in Afghanistan. This is the power anduniversality of the words of the former soldiers of Breaking the Silence.
About Breaking the Silence (NGO)
Breaking the Silence is an NGO that was established by former Israeli soldiers who haveexperienced duty in the occupied territories. It is comprised mostly of young men in their 20s,including founder and spokesman Yehuda Shaul. Through testimony about acts of aggressionin the territories, such as physical abuse, looting, and the killing of civilians, the group asksIsraelis to face realities of the occupation that have long been draped in silence.
The group held a photo exhibition, entitled "Breaking the Silence: Fighters Tell aboutHebron," in Tel Aviv in June 2004. With photographs taken in the occupied territories andvideo testimony from 60 soldiers, the exhibition caused a sensation within Israel.
Since then, the group has gathered several hundred video testimonies and continues to demandaccountability for Israel's military actions in the occupied territories through the media, publicappearances, a website, and numerous publications.
Film Data
- Genre: Documentary
- Format: DVCAM / 130min / Color
- Year of Production: 2009
- Production Company: Siglo, Ltd.
- Director: Toshikuni Doi
- Producers: Tetsujiro Yamagami
Press Release
Press Release (PDF 650KB)
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About "Unheard Voices"
"Unheard Voices" Palestinians, Israelis, and the Occupation
Part 1: Gaza
Beginning just after the Oslo Accords were signed in September 1993, a family in the largest refugee camp in the Gaza Strip is followed over the course of six years. Existing in poverty but sustained by love, the family lives at the mercy of the turbulent political situation. While the peace accord raised hopes of liberation from long years of occupation and the creation of an independent Palestinian state, reality shatters these dreams, and the people of Gaza are torn between optimism and despair. Meanwhile, the film brings into sharp focus the reality of Israel's "legalized occupation" in the context of the shattered peace, and the corruption of a Palestinian National Authority that has lost its vision of "true liberation" for the Palestinian people.
Part 2: Encroachment
The homes of Palestinian residents in East Jerusalem are demolished one after another. A family whose newly built home was bulldozed by city authorities and is now forced to live in a tent is followed over the course of four years. Interviews with city officials and concerned citizens illuminate the government's strategy for the "Israelification" of Jerusalem.
At the same time, the film depicts the struggles of Palestinian farmers cut off from their farmland by the "separation wall," and the economic strangulation of a Palestinian town severed from the surrounding society by the wall. The film exposes the reality that the wall does not simply aim to protect Israelis from suicide bombers, but is also a means of eroding the foundation for building a Palestinian state.
Part 3: Shalom, Salaam
A university student in the Gaza Strip engages in a suicide attack. What drove him to this act was the pent-up anger and despair of the Palestinian people toward daily attacks, house demolitions, and killings by the Israeli army. Meanwhile, a female Israeli border police officer is severely burned in a suicide attack on a bus. The film follows her lengthy recuperation in a hospital, supported by her family, and depicts the victims' festering distrust and anger toward Palestinians. Elsewhere, the parents of a 15-year old girl killed in a suicide attack work as peace activists, shouldering their daughter's strong desire for peace. They participate in a dialogue between bereaved Israeli and Palestinian families, but the gulf between the two groups' visions of "peace" proves difficult to bridge.
Part 4: Breaking the Silence
In the spring of 2002, the Israeli army surrounded and attacked the Balata refugee camp. The camera follows residents living in a state of terror and records their lives and feelings. The desperate situation in the Jenin refugee camp after the death and destruction of Israel's violent attack is also depicted, conveying the reality of "occupation." Meanwhile, former Israeli officers and soldiers in a group called Breaking the Silence testify to the numbing of their sense of morality and ethics during service in the occupied territories, and the dread they feel over the loss of their humanity. They speak out from concern that the moral foundations of Israeli society and the state are at risk. The soldiers' testimony and the ambivalence of their families reveal the deep shadows that the occupation has cast on Israeli society.
Contact
siglo, Ltd.
siglo@cine.co.jp