The documentary “Hebron, Palestine: the factory of colonization”, broadcast on Sunday on France 5, immerses itself in the history of the largest city in the West Bank.
Monster demonstrations against a disputed judicial reform, attack in Tel Aviv, escalation of violence on the border with Lebanon, clashes in the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem… For weeks, Israel has been in the grip of particularly strong tensions. The documentary Hebron, Palestine: the factory of colonization, directed by the Israelis Idit Avrahami and Noam Sheizaf, dissects the occupation by the Jewish state in the West Bank, and more particularly the colonization of Hebron, in the south of this territory. An illustration of the conflict and inequalities between Israelis and Palestinians on which Noam Sheizaf returns for franceinfo, before the broadcast of the film, Sunday April 23.
Franceinfo: Why did you decide to make a film about Hebron?
Noam Sheizaf: We did not shoot this documentary for personal reasons. It’s not because I was an infantry officer in Hebron for six months that I wanted to make this film. It’s because it gave us the opportunity to really see the power the military has over this town.. They decide everything. This is very different from what happens in other occupied Palestinian cities like Ramallah, Jenin or Nablus, where there are no soldiers, and where you can see the Palestinian authorities. Even if the occupation is present too, it is a little more distant. In Hebron, the soldiers are everywhere in the city, because the settlers live inside.
We wanted to tell the big story in a very small place, because in Hebron, everything happens mainly on the one-kilometre-long Martyrs’ Street. This road, which leads to the tomb of the Patriarchs, place of worship and pilgrimage of the two communities, is forbidden to Arabs. Palestinians are forced to take detours to pray. When one specifically wanders down this street, one can understand what the occupation really is, with its share of humiliations and violence.
Usually, Jewish colonies settle outside the cities, not in their center…
Yes, they are separate communities. In general, the settlers create villages, but in Hebron, they are in the city. Because for them, Hebron has always been a Jewish city. There were Jews who lived there until 1929. For them, in 1968, it was their big comeback. They therefore settled in the historic heart. And since they are there, there are soldiers who are also there to protect them. There are also many more soldiers than settlers, since there are 17 companies. Hebron is the largest military region in the West Bank. Many famous officers have been there. Moreover, Benny Gantz, former Minister of Defense and current leader of the centrist Israeli opposition, was commander of the city.
There are shocking images in your film, such as these archives showing Israeli soldiers rejoicing in killing Palestinian civilians…
We did extensive archival research all over the place for the film. We went on social networks, on YouTube, we watched international documentaries. And we found, on the networks, the images of these soldiers making fun of the Palestinian civilians whom they had killed, during the Second Intifada (2000-2005). This short film was shot by the soldiers themselves as they celebrated the end of their military service in Hebron. We decided to include him in our documentary in order to show the state of mind that prevailed at the time.
Is the mindset of Israeli soldiers different today?
Yes and no. At the time, the army let the soldiers shoot in all directions. We can see it in the film, in archival footage, it was like that every night in Hebron during the Second Intifada: the Palestinians were shooting, the Israeli soldiers were shooting… Many Palestinians were killed and no one said Nothing.
Today, there are no daily battles, so things are changing a bit, but the Israeli population is not more sensitive to the plight of the Palestinians. On the contrary, people are even more racist. But the context of the military is different: at the time, these were real battles, because the Palestinians were also shooting; now, these people are like in prison. Gaza is the “maximum security prison”, cs the Americans say, and the other penitentiary is the West Bank. Even the goal of the Palestinian Authority is to defend the Israelis as well, not to support the national cause of the Palestinians.
Was it difficult shooting in Hebron?
Everything was complicated with this film. It took us five years of work and it’s been a struggle from day one until now. It was difficult to convince people, because no one in Israel wants to see what is happening there, an hour from Tel Aviv. A major Israeli documentary channel was interested in the film, so it helped us, but it was still difficult to find the money. If France Télévisions hadn’t bought the TV version of this film, we wouldn’t have been able to do it.
Filming in Hebron was also very difficult. We could make the film without the authorizations, but we had asked for them all the same so that the settlers would not put a spoke in our wheels. Despite this, we were arrested twice during the five days of filming. Thanks to Palestinian activists, we were able to feed our film with their images that document the daily life of the Arab population.
Was it easier to present the film to the public?
No, the problems continued. When we first screened the film in Tel Aviv, we invited the Palestinians who had worked on the project, but the army refused to give them permission to leave the West Bank. And above all, the Israeli far right did everything to cancel the screenings. She succeeded a few times, but not every time fortunately. Politicians have threatened the Jerusalem Cinematheque with cutting their funding if it shows the film.
Even the Minister of Culture, Miki Zohar, threatened to return the subsidies we had received from the State to make the documentary. Finally, he understood that he had no legal basis to force us to return the money. And the movie was award-winning, so that helped. But we receive threats at each screening from the far right, and we are always accompanied by security guards. However, the film lives its life and makes it possible to break the silence on what is happening in these Occupied Territories, because silence is the worst thing.
Do you mainly make documentaries that denounce the situation of the Palestinians?
When you are a journalist in Israel, if you want to be taken seriously, you cannot escape politics and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We have to talk about social problems and the occupation, because it is the biggest problem in the country. I’ve been working on colonization for twenty years, it’s a project for life. In addition, I am Jewish, I am privileged compared to the Palestinians. In this context, I use my privilege of being Jewish to denounce the Israeli occupation and its excesses. A Palestinian director couldn’t do what I do.
The documentary Hebron, Palestine: the factory of occupationdirected by Idit Avrahami and Noam Sheizaf, is broadcast at 10:50 p.m. on Sunday April 23 on France 5 and on france.tv.