9 film tips to better understand the situation in Israel and Palestine

Personal testimony from a Palestinian father who spent five years filming the peaceful protests of his fellow villagers against the construction of an Israeli barrier wall. Cameras break on a regular basis. Highly personal and penetrating, the film documents one village and its struggle against oppression.

Twenty-two Palestinian artists from Gaza share their personal stories amid war, bombings, and isolation. Through short films across various genres, they offer a powerful and human perspective on life under occupation, supported by the Mashawari Fund for films and filmmakers in Gaza.

Since 2005, Israelis and Palestinians have been working for peace, side by side and non-violent, united as the Combatants for Peace. Aided by the support of archival material, filmmakers Stephen Apkon and Andrew Young tell the story of this assertive group.

The devastation that Israel’s militarized society causes on its youth. Told through diaries, letters and home movies, amongst other things, from young men and women who had to fulfill their military service. All the more gripping for its sober, unsentimental approach.

Fly-on-the-wall portrait of Musa Hadid, the Christian mayor of Ramallah. The witty, amiable Hadid does what he can to make life as good and dignified as possible for his citizens. But the Israeli occupation is never fully absent, and often rears its head. Thrilling, energetic, cliché-defying documentary.

The story of the first Palestinian intifada, and the key role women played in it. Central to the story is activist and feminist Naila Ayesh, who was imprisoned twice for her resistance to the Israeli rule of the occupied Palestinian territories. The women’s struggle to be free from occupation paralleled their fight against male domination.

Atalya is a 19-year-old faced with the biggest dilemma of her life: should she follow the order to enlist in the Israeli army? She doesn’t want to be complicit in the occupation of Palestinian land. But the pressure she faces – both from society and her family – is immense.

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.

A Palestinian activist from the West Bank and an Israeli journalist join forces to shed light on the mass expulsions of Palestinian residents. Both an account of the emotional and mental impact of occupation and oppression, and an urgent call to action.