In the Fall of 2009 I had the privilege of following a delegation of US veterans and war resisters traveling to Israel/Palestine to meet with their Israeli counterparts in an effort to strengthen connections between the US and Israeli anti-militarist movements and to share their experiences of refusing to be part of an occupying army. Made up of members of Iraq Veterans Against the War, Courage to Resist, the War Resisters' League, among other groups, the group—called Dialogues Against Militarism (DAM)—spent a month traversing the Israeli state and the Occupied West Bank meeting with Israelis and Palestinians. As a filmmaker, I was asked to accompany the delegation to document its travels and record their conversations and interviews.
My latest film, Occupation Has No Future: Militarism + Resistance in Israel/Palestine, is the result of dozens of exchanges and encounters during the month that DAM spent in Israel/Palestine. The documentary uses this trip as a lens to study Israeli militarism, examine the occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, and explore the work of Israelis and Palestinians organizing against militarism and occupation.
In Occupation Has No Future, the consequences of Israeli domestic policy are revealed in stark terms, not only for the Palestinian people, but for Israeli civil society as well. During months of pre-production research I came to learn a lot not only about the Israeli occupation and life in the occupied territories but also about Israeli civil society, and its absence. Even with this new-found knowledge I still found Israel's all-encompassing system of militarization hard to fathom. The military interpenetrates all aspects of society from the top to the bottom. Civilian institutions completely independent from the military are rare. Hospitals, for instance, are supplied with doctors and resources from the armed forces, so the military is allowed significant, if unofficial, control over policy. The media, a cornerstone in any supposedly "democratic" state, is still subject to military censorship (even if it is rarely imposed, as self-censorship prevails). And the question most often asked in job interviews? "What did you do in the army?"
From a very young age Israelis are taught about the Jewish history of persecution, and how it continues to this day from all sides—figuratively and literally—in the form of the Arab states and Palestinian terrorism. Criticism of Israeli policy is interpreted as the proliferation of Western anti-Semitism. The military is rarely absent from the classroom. A military emphasis is present not only in the curriculum, but in the form of uniformed soldiers teaching classes, or recruiters advertising their specific units. Even the funding of schools is tied to their rates of military enlistment.
An erosion in basic civic participation is quite evident. "For the Israeli society itself, sending every 18-year-old into the army, having them grow into a position where they don't ask questions but just follow orders—I've seen that happen to me," says Tali Lerner during her interview. A former soldier who refused to finish her term of service, Lerner now works with the feminist anti-militarist organization New Profile. "I think it's hurting this society in much more than just the occupation itself, but in all fields of society."
"Our message to all the world, this is not a security wall like the Israelis said. This is just for confiscating more land, to build more settlements, and to put the Palestinians in a big jail with their families." These are the words of the Iyad Burnat, Chair of the Bil'in Popular Committee, one of the grassroots organizing bodies leading the protest movement against the construction of the Separation Wall through the West Bank.
The Palestinian voices in the film are not alone, however. They are echoed and reinforced by their Israeli allies—many of whom are former soldiers who served in the areas the film explores.
There is a lot of work to be done. But here is a place to start. Honest about the extremely daunting challenges, Occupation Has No Future also reveals the hope of a growing number of Israelis and Palestinians to live together, free from occupation, with peace and justice.
David Zlutnick is a documentary filmmaker and founder of Upheaval Productions.
