The Palestinian people have been fighting for their rights even longer than you might think.
During WWI, British Lord Balfour, who from his writing and the parliamentary bills he supported had racist and anti-Semitic views, authored the Balfour Declaration, which called for the creation of a Jewish state within Palestine that would among other things serve as a bulwark for the European empires against the aspirations of the Arabs. At the same time England and France were promising the Arabs freedom and states of their own if they fought with them against the Ottoman Empire. After the war and the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire, Palestine became part of the British Mandate in the Middle East.
“Palestine ’36” deals with an uprising of the Palestinians against the British Mandate that took place in 1936-39 as Europe was nearing WWII. While the ethnic residents of Palestine had chaffed under British rule ever since the collapse of the Ottomans, in the mid 1930s many Jewish refugees from Europe were making their way to the Middle East, buying and simply seizing land from the current inhabitants – with the approval of the British.
The specific story revolves around the rural village of Al Bassa, Jerusalem, and Jaffa. Yusuf (Karim Daoud Anaya – “A DJ in the Territories”), son of a farmer in the village, works in Jerusalem as an assistant for the well to do journalist couple Amir (Dhafer L’Abidine – “Sophia”) and his wife, Khuloud (Yasmine Al Massri – “I Was a Stranger”). Khuloud writes articles attacking the British Mandate, while her cautious husband seeks a middle ground favored by the wealthy Palestinians. Yusuf is ambivalent about the rising resistance until his father is murdered by the expanding Jewish colonists and his younger brother is brutalized and imprisoned by the British during their ransacking of the village.
Khuloud and a women’s group approach the High Commissioner Arthur Wauchope (Jeremy Irons – “The Beekeeper”) who bloviates about the positions of the British regarding their oversight of the people they control, but promises them that a new commission, headed by Lord Peel, would undertake to identify and resolve the issues between the Jewish colonists and the indigenous Palestinians. When the report comes out it calls for a division of the land and a state for the Jews but not the Palestinians – exactly the opposite of what Khuloud was working for.
Meanwhile at the Port of Jaffa, Khalid (Saleh Bakri – “The Teacher”) isn’t ready to join the rebellion — until he’s beaten for asking for the overtime pay he’s earned. Soon he’s one of the rebels’ leaders.
There is much to praise here: the gorgeous cinematography, the integration of period film that belies the claim of “land without people for a people without land” claimed by the Zionists, the entrancing musical score, and the performances by most of the actors. However, the overall result is confusing, with too many characters, the two-dimensional presentation of the British (with the exception of the fictional character Thomas, played by Billy Howle), and the confusing editing, which jumps too often from one place to another.
Despite these shortcomings, this movie is well worth seeing for the story behind some of the most critical events occurring in our world today.
Notes:
• After the creation of Israel and the ethnic cleansing carried out by the Zionists, Joffa was renamed Tel Aviv.
• The film has been banned in Jerusalem, Israel, following Israeli authorities detaining the projectionist involved in one of the screenings for interrogation.
Written and directed by: Annemarie Jacir
Runtime: One hour, 55 minutes
Availability: Still in some theaters, streaming on Amazon Prime
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