Violence or nonviolence? Two documentaries reviewed

Encounter Point appropriately opens with a wide shot of two parallel roads, suggesting that there are two worlds existing side by side in the same place. Indeed, this is confirmed within the first few minutes of the film, as Israeli citizen Shlomo Zagman breezes through a West Bank checkpoint with a friendly wave from soldiers while Palestinian Sami Al-Jundi waits in an endless queue of Palestinian vehicles at a decidedly less friendly checkpoint.

In the film we meet Israelis and Palestinians from the Bereaved Families Forum, which brings together those from both communities who have lost family members to political violence. Particularly memorable are Robi Damelin, whose son was killed by a sniper while manning a checkpoint guarding a settlement, and Ali Abu Awwad, whose unarmed brother Youssef was killed by an Israeli soldier during an army raid.

Damelin, who grew up in South Africa, struggles with her own principles as she appeals to skeptical Israeli audiences. Unable to contain her anger at a visit to a settlement in the Gaza Strip where an audience of visitors is told that Israelis have a God-given right to the land and that the Arabs have it pretty good, Damelin interrupts, exclaiming, "[That's] exactly what whites said about the living standards of blacks" in apartheid South Africa. And when she is asked on Israeli television what she would like done to the sniper who killed her son, she replies, "You cannot kill anyone in the name of David. What I'm focusing on is, why was David in the Occupied Territories? Why was David guarding settlers who said their safety is worth more than David's life?"

There are scenes of Damelin at peace rallies in which she is shown holding signs critical of the Israeli occupation. She stands out from the other Israelis featured in the film, like Tzvika Shahak, whose daughter Bat-Chen was killed in the 1996 Purim suicide bombing. Also a member of the Bereaved Families Forum, Shahak believes that the suicide bomber who killed his daughter is someone to be pitied, and rather than motivated by nationalist aims, he was brainwashed by metaphorical "drug dealers" who should be "taken care of" by Israel. We later see Shahak speak to some young Israeli teenagers, likely on the brink of being conscripted into the military. After speaking to the kids, Shahak explains that serving in the army is important -- that "we have to stay strong and also have dialogue." Damelin's stand seems more honest -- how can one be in a coexistence group yet still believe the occupation is necessary?

Problematically for those who do not have a strong background in the conflict, the film -- produced by the self-described non-political group Just Vision that advocates non-violence -- does not go into much background about the conflict. In the beginning of the film viewers are informed, "Palestinians struggle to end Israeli military occupation and create an independent state" while "Israelis act to secure themselves against attacks by Palestinians, nearby states and militant groups." The viewer is left with the sense that if Palestinians and Israelis would just recognize their shared humanity, the oft-cited cycle of violence could finally come to an end.

Such a message equivocates the situation and makes it appear as though the two parties are equally responsible for the "cycle of violence." The film seems to suggest that the conflict is primarily psychological -- one that can be overcome by encounters -- rather than one stemming from a systematic disparity in rights. For a film focusing on the experience of the bereaved, it is surely a questionable omission that there is no mention of the massive disparity of Palestinian versus Israeli deaths during the last six years of intifada and indeed six decades of conflict. The film does not go into the roots of this conflict, the dispossession of the Palestinian people when an overwhelmingly non-Jewish country was turned into a "Jewish state" during the war of 1947-48 and the colonization of Palestinian land ever since.

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