Palestinian Studies Guide

An interview with Edward Saeed on Palestine dating back to 1988.

Palestinian Arabs from the West Bank town of Jenin talk about their experiences during the Battle of Jenin in April of 2002 (which was part of the Israeli army's Operation Defensive Shield, in response to the ongoing Al-Aqsa Intifada). Censored in Israel.

In Sansour's film, Palestinians have their state in the form of a single skyscraper: the Nation Estate. One colossal high-rise houses the entire Palestinian population - now finally living the high life. With a glossy mixture of computer generated imagery, live actors and an arabesque electronica soundtrack, Nation Estate explores a vertical solution to Palestinian statehood. Each city has its own floor: Jerusalem on the third floor, Ramallah on the fourth floor, Sansour’s native Bethlehem on the fifth and so on. Intercity trips previously marred by checkpoints are now made by elevator. Aiming for a sense of belonging, the lobby of each floor reenacts iconic squares and landmarks.

Born to a Moroccan Muslim father and a Tunisian Jewish mother, filmmaker Nabil Ayouch spent his childhood hearing divergent views about Israel and Palestine. Still wrestling with “a conflict that never left me,” Ayouch created this poignant documentary about young Israelis, displaced Palestinians, and the threads of tragic history woven between two communities with deep ties to the same land. Ayouch entered Lebanese refugee camps to record personal testimonies from elderly Palestinians about memories of their birthplaces. Then he visited those homes in present-day Israel to learn about the attitudes of the young people currently living there. This process of gathering perspectives enabled Ayouch to set up the film’s evocative virtual encounters, in which the Israeli subjects view and react to the Palestinian testimonies. The results are moving, frequently surprising, and apt to help those who struggle to comprehend the hardships of the region. (Portions with English subtitles, 82 minutes)

Settlement expansion across Palestine is out of control—now we need to speak about the One State Solution! Is the patchwork of remaining Palestinian land now so fragmented it could never form a viable future state? This incisive film explores the question of whether Israeli settlers have destroyed all hope of return for the original occupants and asks if the One State Solution is doomed beyond hope of being salvaged.

What’s it like growing up in a war zone? Dodging bullets, hiding from Israeli soldiers, and losing their land to settlers is part of ordinary life for Palestinian children. Five-year-old Diana lives in a cave in the West Bank since violence forced her family from their home. Mufida, 16, is struggling to complete her education with Israeli soldiers living on her roof. And Yassin, 7, just wants to move to Brazil. Through their stories and others, this film reveals the daily struggle of Palestinian children to survive, both physically and psychologically. “I want to live in peace,” says Mufida, who must pass through a hail of settlers’ stones every day on her way to school, “but then I see what the Israelis do, and I hate them.” (52 minutes)

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On 4th November 1995, after addressing a mass rally of his supporters celebrating the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Accord, one of Israel's greatest Prime Ministers was gunned down by a young Israeli opposed to his concept of "Land for Peace". The trial revealed shortcomings in the Israeli President's security arrangements. A BBC Production. A part of the series Infamous Assassinations. (26 minutes)

History now takes us to Europe: the French Revolution. Nation-states. The Jews, now European citizens, became the target of a more asserted anti-Semitism. But having incorporated the new national elites, they began to take a greater interest in the fate of the Jews in the Muslim world and to play the role of their protectors. Trapped between Zionism and Arabic nationalism, Palestine — called “Southern Syria” by the Ottomans — became the object of religious and political contention.

Arik Ascherman and Jeremy Milgrom are not typical Israeli rabbis. As this documentary shows, every day they leave their homes in Jerusalem to help Palestinians in the West Bank. They believe Jews, as God’s chosen people, have an obligation to challenge the injustices of occupation. But few other Israelis agree. In addition to confronting angry settlers, the rabbis must overcome the prejudices of most Palestinians. Can clerics, of all people, really help to resolve a conflict that is seen for the most part as rooted in religion? Through their actions and beliefs, the rabbis are challenging widespread prejudices. As Ascherman states: “We give Palestinians hope that there are other kinds of Israelis they can talk to, come to agree with, and have peace with.” (45 minutes)

1913: Seeds of Conflict examines a critical yet overlooked moment of transformation in Palestine, long before the Balfour Declaration and British Mandate period usually considered the matchstick for today's ongoing struggles. It was a time when identities were fluid and few Arabs or Jews living there could imagine the conflict that would engulf their region for the next century.

Produced with unprecedented access to Hamas and its operations, this program takes viewers inside Gaza’s Islamic fundamentalist government in the months following its civil war against Fatah. The film observes Hamas leaders as they struggle to shape policy and follows a former militant who now heads up an Executive Force police unit—carrying out orders he doesn’t agree with. Archival footage and interviews from earlier years are also included, creating a historical context in which the emergence of Hamas, as well as the problems of governance it now faces, can be examined and discussed. Fatah’s ongoing control over Hamas finances is one of the many topics analyzed. (49 minutes)

By detailing key incidents ranging from the Dawson’s Field hijackings to the Luxor massacre, this program charts the ever-widening holy war that is pitting Islamists against Zionists and the Arab world against the West. The Kach Party’s Noam Federman; Bassam abu Sharif, founder of the Palestine Democratic Party; Abdel Aziz Rantisi and Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, operational and spiritual leaders of Hamas; Sheikh Jamal Khatab and Sheikh Fadlallah, spiritual leaders of Lebanese al Qaeda and Hezbollah; former Jewish Underground leader Yehuda Etzion; and former PFLP hijacker Leila Khaled are featured, as are former prime minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu and Conor Gearty, expert in human rights law. (47 minutes)

An interview with Yasser Arafat, Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization—his first since Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir offered his plans for elections in the occupied territories.

This program reviews the decisive years that carved a Jewish state out of Palestine. It focuses on the period from the end of the World War II through to the United Nations vote on the Partition Plan in 1947, and it concludes with Israel’s declaration of independence in 1948.

This program examines Israel's history from 1948 and 1967. Israel’s declaration of independence was followed immediately by war. Emerging victorious, the new state had ensured its survival, but questions arose about its borders and Palestinian refugees. The Six Day War broke out in 1967. Though Israel once again emerged the victor, this conflict strengthened feelings of hatred and humiliation compromising any hopes of a lasting peace in the region.

When Israeli graduate student Teddy Katz meticulously documented a massacre of Palestinian civilians surrounding Israel's independence, he was initially celebrated for his groundbreaking work. But soon, he was stripped of his degrees and was publicly shamed as a fraudulent traitor. Decades later, incendiary new evidence emerges to corroborate Teddy's initial findings, not just vindicating him, but raising profound questions about how Israelis — and we all — deal with the darker chapters of history.

IMDb: In the war of 1948 hundreds of Palestinian villages were depopulated. Israelis call it 'The War of Independence. Palestinians call it 'Nakba"'. The film examines one village - Tantura and why "Nakba" is taboo in Israeli society.