Palestine Is Still the Issue
Palestine Is Still the Issue
| 06 January 2003 (USA)
Palestine Is Still the Issue Trailers

A documentary about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that has lasted for more than 50 years. Contains some interviews with the children in this conflict.

Reviews
Bergorks If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.
Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes
Aubrey Hackett While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.
Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.
Platypuschow Though Palestine Is Still the Issue doesn't bring any new facts to the table it's an awareness documentary that I believe everyone should watch.Perhaps if more people knew of the travesty's taking place and had the mainstream medias lies about Israel explained to them then something could be done about it.This is the third John Pilger film I've watched and I very much enjoy his work. If I were to criticize in anyway I'd point out that his documentaries are a tad on the short side.If you are not aware of what is going on in Palestine and what has been for a very very long time then I suggest you give these 52 minutes your time. Another drawn out genocide, another cover up, another group of people demonised by the media while the truly evil ones are defended by our governments.And yet again all the death, all the intolerance, all the acts of purely evil taking place are directly attributed to religion.To quote Bill Maher "For mankind to survive, religion must die"
fbossert This is a good documentary film about life in the occupied territories of Gaza and Transjordania; it also includes a short outline of the basic historic facts of the conflict, as well as some –otherwise obvious and self-imposed- ideas on the origin of inter-ethnic violence between Palestina and Israel. As many other documentaries around on the subject, this film does a lot by simply exposing some facts that are evident in Middle East, but rarely reach Western medias. After watching some of these films (made both by independent Israeli film-makers as Mograbi or European as Pilger) you realize that what they show is not at all some "unique footage" got by means of deep research, chance or perseverance, nor the product of a good deal of careful edition: once the crew can make it into the occupied territories (which apparently isn't that easy) they only need to shoot for a while the army checkpoints, the Israeli weapons everywhere, the 8 meters wall built in 2002, the "Jews-only" highways, the devastated lands or the towns destroyed by Israeli bombs to show what the Israeli occupation means. Anyway, the most shocking thing in this film -at least for me- are perhaps not these images, but the interviews to Israeli authorities and common-citizens; it is only then that you get to understand how this situation could happen and persists. Now, one of the reviews here shows exactly that point of view (look around for it). This reviewer tries to contest the whole film by pointing-out two alleged "mistakes" made by Pilger (which would show his total dishonesty about the subject): 1) Israel doesn't have the 4th most powerful army in the world, as Pilger claims; and 2) "Pilger makes the mistake of saying that Israel controlled 78% of the land after the 1948 War of Independence". As for number 1), maybe Israel was actually ranked number 4 for year 2002 (but where? by whom? on which standards?) maybe not: it doesn't matter at all. The only point here is that Israel has an army -and a very strong one, including nuclear weapons- and Palestine doesn't have any army at all, nor big or small – in the touching words of the Israeli that close the film: compared to us, Palestine is a mosquito. As for number 2), I'm afraid Pilger is right: even though Israel was given 55% of Palestine by the ONU in 1947, in the facts they were never restricted to that territory. The war began the next day and after it Israel was occupying 78% of Palestine -throwing out 750.000 Palestinians in the meanwhile, who would become refugees and would grow up to be more than 5.000.000 today. Other than this, the review doesn 't say a thing about what we see in the film. Some of its expressions, though, are in perfect harmony with the shocking opinions that I commented before. For instance, it accuses Pilger of using "Nazi-style tactics". In fact, critics to Israeli politics -even when made by reputed Jew intellectuals as Hannah Arendt- are commonly labeled as "antisemitism" or even –as here- Nazism. Far from it, in this case: the most important voices of the film are precisely those of Israeli Jew citizens who give a different insight on the situation and on the deep causes of violence, and even confess to be ashamed of their government politics against the Palestinians. A second example: this film "goes to discredit the only free democracy in the Middle East", says the reviewer. Leaving aside the military occupied territories of Gaza and Transjordania –which wouldn't be called "a democracy" by the drunkest madman on earth- and focusing on Israel itself, it would be a little funny to call that a sparkling democracy, if we remember that non-Jew Israeli citizens just don't have many of the rights granted to Jew citizens: different access –if any access at all- to land, to jobs and -more dramatically- to Law. Depending on your religious beliefs or political ideology, you may or not agree with this discrimination, you may justify it or not; but what you can not do is to call it a "free democracy", not under any available definition of the term.
Alain English John Pilger tackles another hot topic in a documentary about the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the effects of this occupation on Israelis and native Palestinians. Pilger likens the occupation to South Africa's apartheid regime, and goes against much of the usual coverage of the conflict which he says has tended to be biased towards the occupying Israelis against the Palestinians, whose desperation has turned some of them towards suicide bombing.Pilger looks at both sides of the argument here, talking to Palestinians affected by the occupation but also dissenting Israelis who refuse to serve in the Occupied Territories. He also examines the history of modern Israel, and how a recent compromise by Yassir Arafat (head of the Palestine Liberation Organisation) with the occupying Israelis did virtually nothing for ordinary Palestinians and in fact paved the way for the occupation to get worse.This is capped by an interview with Dori Gold, Israel's senior adviser to the Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Pilger can occasionally be judgemental when interviewing political figures, allowing his accusations to get in the way of the interview. This doesn't happen here and Gold's words in themselves display his complicity in his own governments terrorism and occupation, along with total disregard for the Palestinians. This is backed by Western governments, who supply the occupying forces with arms in return for looking after their oil supply.Pilger's examination of history, while strong, could have been more thorough. As it is, it seems a little sketchy in places and I would liked more detail to have been shown, particularly on the founding of modern Israel.Pilger ends the documentary for a plea for compassion for the Palestinians and to end the destructive silence on their plight. He also looks for a solution to the problem which has become marred in endless negotiation and violence.
amchai1818 This film is completely one-sided and lacking truth on a subject that is constantly in our news.This film's presenter John Pilger was not very HONEST when addressing issues such as history. False statements like "Israel is the world's 4th largest military", poison this film. In reality Israel's IDF ranks 13th behind Syria, Morocco, Turkey, Pakistan, Vietnam, France, Germany and others large nations.In 1982 this Writer and presenter of the film screwed up an article on Thai prostitution rings so bad that the Oxford dictionary actually coined a term "Pilgering" which basically means to make up a story so it supports your conclusion or views.Pilger uses misquotes and historical information that has been proven false.He ignores the fact that the Palestine Mandate was split to form Israel(Palestine) and Transjordan, which actually is 78% of "historical Palestine" or historical Israel, depending on your views. Pilger makes the mistake of saying that Israel controlled 78% of the land after the 1948 War of Independece. Looking at any historical map, one can see that this is simply untrue with Israel controlling 55% of Historic Israel.In short this film is filled with lies that can be found on any hate website attacking Jews or Israel. These Nazi-style tactics are horrid and only show how far people will go to discredit the only free democracy in the Middle East.
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