A Disturbing Film

The SPARK-sponsored film in the Leeds Palestinian Film Festival this year (the tenth year) was called ‘Where Olive Trees Weep’. The film cleverly cut between talking heads, filmed footage from various encounters by ordinary Palestinians with Israeli military forces and some archive footage. It was at times harrowing to watch.

One of the key messages was that Israel has created an apartheid state where Palestinians have to live under different conditions to Israeli citizens (for instance, being subject to military law instead of civil law). It chronicled the gradual loss of land to illegal Israeli settlements and physical abuses by the Israeli military and asked the question why so little of this is reported in mainstream western media.

In academic circles there is an acceptance of the ‘generational trauma’ of the Jewish people because of the Holocaust. However, the state of Israel is now creating similar generational trauma in the Palestinian people – dehumanising them in so many ways so that they can be more easily ‘dealt’ with: they are not treated as equal human beings but as obstacles to Israel taking total control over all of the areas nominally under Palestinian control. The film spent some time exploring how Palestinians (especially children but others as well) can cope with their daily trauma. The resilience of so many of them was extraordinary.

The filming took place during 2022 and, watching it, you could not help but think how much more desperate the situation is now in the year since the 7^th October 23 Hamas attack. It was a difficult watch – but no more so than watching documentaries about the Holocaust: something which we should all do, lest we become too insulated from the horrors going on in our world.

You can find out more and watch the film by going to its website: https://whereolivetreesweep.com/