Israel: The Battle for Jerusalem

“Oh, Jerusalem!” Jesus wasn't the first nor will he be the last to lament the place and its inhabitants. To get a quick understanding of the city's political, ethnic and religious mess, Israel: The Battle for Jerusalem introduces viewers to the situation via a map featuring tiny color-coded cantons indicating Israeli- or Palestinian-owned property in East Jerusalem. But it's the human face behind the map that makes this worth watching: the Israeli mother who has not one but two armed guards escort her when she takes her baby out in the stroller, or the Palestinian family whose son has cancer and is initially told by Israeli authorities that he's not entitled to medical benefits. Most interesting of all is the confrontation in West Jerusalem between a young Jewish woman whose father took over a house after 1948, and the middle-aged Palestinian woman who lived there as a child. Although some details date the tape (Ariel Sharon is mentioned as the leader of Israel's right-wing party and not as Prime Minister, a post he has held since March 2001), and the program contains a fair amount of untranslated dialogue and no subtitles for heavily-accented speakers, this would still be a good choice for college and public libraries with comprehensive foreign affairs collections. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (R. Reagan)