The Law in These Parts

Filmmaker Ra'anan Alexandrowicz's documentary challenges Zionist doctrine that Israel's development in the Middle East (at least in the Occupied Territories) has brought justice to barren hinterlands. A number of Israeli Defense Force judges and prosecutors (many now retired) who administered conquered Palestinian land in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are queried here about their actions (and decisions) on the bench after 1967. While it's true that they faced Solomon-like dilemmas (such as whether to consider Palestinian insurgents "enemy combatants" in Geneva Convention terms, or for that matter, ever recognize Arab rights as being co-equal to those of citizens of the Jewish state), a troubling picture begins to emerge as case histories are recalled (such as the Palestinian widow jailed over a year for giving a fugitive a piece of pita bread). Palestinian lands were annexed using ancient Ottoman Empire code (or a perversion of it) as precedent; a blind eye was turned to thuggery by Orthodox settlers; and torture as a sanctioned IDF interrogation technique got a pass. And some Palestinians early on did file with Israeli courts to try to lawfully retain their property—to no avail. One judge here tellingly refuses to answer the 64,000-shekel question: would Israeli citizens agree to live under the same legal system as the Occupied Territories? A Grand Jury Prize winner at the Sundance Film Festival, this thought-provoking documentary is highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)