Mash-up documentary on the history of the Middle East conflict around the region of Palestine. Inspired by Exodus, chapter 23, verses 20–33.
According to the Zionist understanding, Israel describes itself as the “state of the Jewish people”. The Jewish people have suffered immensely through millennia of persecution, not least the extermination of millions of Jewish people by the Nazis.
The more I have learned over time about the lives of Palestinian people in Israel itself, in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, the more often I have asked myself (and this even before October 7, 2023, Hamas’ attack on Israel):
How can a people who have suffered immensely themselves throughout their history be in a position to inflict oppression, discrimination and the deprivation of basic human rights on another people?
The enormity of the acts of war that the Israeli government and its military claim to have understood as a “response” to the Hamas attack led me to look for explanations in the Old Testament of the Bible and the Jewish Torah. There you can find passages that can be understood in a frighteningly clear way as instructions for the conquest of the whole of Palestine and the expulsion of the Palestinians:
Excerpts from Exodus, chapter 23, especially verses 20–33. The texts accordingly accompany some sequences in my video on the history of Palestine and the Jews as well as on the war that has been raging between Hamas and Israel since October 7, 2023.
Note: The 2nd Book of Moses (Exodus) is part of both the Jewish Torah and the Old Testament of the Bible.
A personal note: I fundamentally object when core religious statements assert territorial claims on behalf of their followers that deny people of other faiths or nations the right to remain and exist, and call for their expulsion and killing.
Screenings and awards at short film festivals (German archive)
Concept and process: Mashup-Videos