Sayed Almosawi

I have always been fascinated by people who are able to think, reflect, and make the right choices in very tough environment, instead of simply following the majority's view and when all circumstances are against them. In Israel, where according to the film 90% of the population supported the bombings of Gaza in 2009 in which around 1,400 Palestinians were killed, it is much harder for a person growing up there to realise why the occupation policies taking place under their name are wrong, and people who realise that and make a public stance face unbearable social pressures and, in the case of one of the activists, multiple indictments and possible imprisonment. Israelis who come out and publicly & strongly condemn the occupation and support the Palestinians suffering from these repressive policies are ones I truly admire, and I always want to learn more about the reflection and rationales of such great thinkers. The fact that this movie offered the stories of four different people, ncluding an ex-IDF soldier and a rabbi, adds a lot of value it. The award-winning film narrates the story of four Jewish men and women who take active part against the occupation of Palestine and many of the policies employed by Israel against the Palestinians. The occupation policies are in place because Israel has two systems of controls: a civil code for Israelis living inside the internationally-recognised borders of Israel as well as several Israeli colonies inside the internationally-recognised borders of Palestine, while Palestinians are controlled with military code. The movie shows the humiliating environment Israel has set up for Palestinians, whether, for example, as they pass through crowded checkpoints in which they are ordered around and spoken to without any sign of respect, or by settlers living in Israeli colonies in the West Bank and making the life of their Palestinian neighbours a living hell under the protection of the IDF. It also shows the reaction of some Israelis to the activists, calling them traitors, anti-Israel, and in one instance, a n***. The movie is really interesting for those trying to learn more about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as it narrates primary accounts of Israelis against Israel's policy, which is an important source of information for one trying to diversify their knowledge and listen to different types of people connected to the issue. The fact that the movie represented different segments of Israel's population made it even more interesting. Overall, the movie was really well-made, having added the necessary background information as it was showing different aspects of the lives' of the activists. In the end, the movie not only made me more compassionate with the Palestinians, but with the Israelis as well; the Palestinians, because the torture of not having a home country and the right to determine their own future themselves is inconceivable, and the Israelis, because I witnessed some of their experience relevant to the topic and can understand why it is so difficult to break out of the box. Afterall, it is just hard to win against the most common and prevalent narrative, and nobody wants to be called traitor by their own people in their own nation, but this is a Rosa Park situation, and sometimes in a peaceful future between the two nations, Israelis will surely come to remember these four outcasts kindly. Their names are Yehuda Sha'ul, Arik Ascherman, Jonathan Pollock, and Ronny Perlmann.