Tantura

In the 1990s, research claimed the Israeli army had committed a massacre in the Palestinian village of Tantura in 1948. However, several former Israeli soldiers retracted their testimony, the research was dismissed and the researcher ostracized and threatened. Now, director Alon Schwartz conducts an eye-opening re-examination.  

After the declaration of Israel in 1948 and the ensuing Israel-Arab war, hundreds of Palestinian villages were depopulated. Palestinians call this period ‘Al Nakba’ – the Catastrophe. To this day, Al Nakba is taboo in Israeli society.

In the 1990s, researcher Teddy Katz conducted many hours of interviews about a massacre that the Israeli Alexandroni Brigade was alleged to have committed in the Palestinian town of Tantura. Katz captured shocking testimony from former soldiers, who subsequently all retracted what they had said. Katz was sued for defamation and his tapes were not permitted to be heard in court. Now, director Alon Schwarz confronts former Israeli soldiers and talks to Palestinian residents of Tantura, in an effort to re-examine what happened. ‘Be careful,’ Katz warns him. ‘They will hunt you down like I was.’