Often, I am asked for recommendations of video primers on the situation in Palestine.
I try to think of something that people can screen for their families, friends and neighbours that shows more than what corporate cable news channels or propagandistic聽听鈥涣蹿蹿别谤".
Texas-based filmmaker Bob Peck has just released a free documentary,听Solidarity: Five Largely Unknown Truths about Israel, Palestine and the Occupied Territories, that I am happy to recommend.聽Watch it here:
It is a feat to coalesce 72 years of struggle against displacement, apartheid and racism into an accessible 110-minute film, but Peck manages this task well.
鈥淯ltimately, I want to help educate Americans on the suffering of the Palestinians,鈥 Peck told Electronic Intifada.
Drawing on both historical and current struggles for Palestinians under siege, occupation and forced displacement, including the聽聽in Gaza, the film provides a stirring indictment of Israel鈥檚 settler project as well as that of the cable networks鈥 deliberate spin to shield Israel from accountability.
As the film鈥檚 title indicates, Peck聽: the expulsion of Palestinians during the Nakba, when 800,000 Palestinians were forced from their homeland in 1947-1948; Israel鈥檚 disproportionate violence against Palestinians; Israel鈥檚 continued expansion of illegal settlement colonies; the US鈥 financial support of Israel; and what鈥檚 behind the聽聽to label criticism of Israel鈥檚 policies as anti-Semitism.
Using exclusive interviews as well as footage from independent media sources, Peck incorporates first-person accounts from Palestinians whose families were displaced in the Nakba, as well as sharp analysis of Israel鈥檚 expanding policies of expulsion, control, resource theft and apartheid by young Palestinian American activists, Israeli conscientious objectors and members of Jewish Voice for Peace and other human rights organisations.
Lectures and remarks by iconic scholars Edward Said, Noam Chomsky and Angela Davis are also featured.
罢丑别听聽(BDS) campaign features prominently in the last part of the film as a critical way to build solidarity with Palestinians struggling for human rights, justice and equality. The film makes the link to the struggle against Apartheid in South Africa.
In the spirit of John Pilger鈥檚聽聽or Abby Martin鈥檚聽,听Solidarity聽is a film that unpacks the deliberate misinformation war on the Palestinian struggle and the complicity of the US in aiding and abetting Israel鈥檚 crimes. It is worth watching.
[Reprinted from .]