Customer Reviews

People and the Land [VHS]

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This documentary won the 1998 Silver Screen Award at the U.S. International Film and Video Festival. The film crew and producers made several trips to Palestine and Israel, interviewing a variety of participants on both sides of this conflict (e.g., Israeli IDF, police, and settlers as well as the Palestinians). The film also includes revealing footage of Israeli checkpoints, roadblocks, etc. It is impossible to dispute the actual footage of IDF soldiers savagely beating wholly unarmed Palestinians, and making armed incursions just after midnight into Palestinian refugee camps to "collect the electric bill". Equally disturbing are the interviews with a new Jewish emigrant from South Africa who explicitly seeks the 'removal' of all Arabs from Palestine just as the "black traitors" should have been removed from South Africa, and the interview with a young female Jewish settler who explicitly states that the Palestinians should never have the human/civil rights of "Our People".

Obviously this documentary is not for those unwilling to face/admit the realities of occupied Palestine. It is, however, required viewing for those who believe truth is important to problem-solving, and to those who wish to see first-hand what Israel is doing with the over $100 BILLION in U.S. taxpayers' money it has received.

Not a bad film, but marred by its intense partisanship and lack of context. A lot of the movie made some very good points and showed the harsh reality of life in occupied Palestine. Some shots of attacks are particularly hard to watch.

Still, the picture painted by Mr. Hayes is Manichaean. Israelis (with the exception of peace activists) seem to be delusional zionist-Nazis. Israel seems to arbitrarily occupy Palestinian land in 1967, for little more reason than hatred. The fact that Arab countries allied to crush the country in that year goes discreetly unmentioned. No Palestinian, not even Yassir Arafat, who has supported terrorism and torpedoed the peace process more than once, is at all to blame for any part of the conflict.

Also, to correct the previous statement, the protester holding a sign about "black traitors" is not referring to black Africans, but much more likely to the "Women in Black," a group of peace activists who periodically organize in Tel Aviv, a member of which Mr. Hayes interviews. The two were probably interviewed on the same day.

Overall, it was pretty convincing, but having heard Mr. Hayes speak after the film, it seemed as if he may be too close to the issue to provide a nuanced view of the Israel-Palestine situation. There is a vague subtext of a Jewish-Zionist conspiracy to keep money flowing to Israel. Generally one only sees this position in voices from two groups: The Muslim world and Neo-Nazis. When asked if he realized that an end to American subsidies to Israel would cause the state to collapse, and whether he, de facto, did not support the existence of an Israeli state, Mr. Hayes snapped at the person who asked, saying that he would never support a racist regime, dodging the question entirely. In general, the film was well-made and moving, but rather self-righteous, snide, and simplistic.

This video is embarrassingly biased. The makers of "People and the Land" are intellectually trapped by their leftist doctrines. They fail to see the proverbial forest because the trees are in the way. The world is perceived as split between the oppressors and their victims. Israel is an alleged fascist state taking advantage of the Palestinians. The Israelis are always at fault. Absurdly, no mention is made of Palestinian terrorism as the reason for ambulance searches and troop checkpoints.

Jew hatred is number one reason for the trouble in this region. The Palestinians are often nothing less than self pitying thugs enraged and embittered by their second class status---which is the fault of their own foolish choices and racist bigotry.

David Thomson

Flares into Darkness