CAIRO - 18 August 2017: ‘Occupation 101: Voices of the silenced majority’ is a poignant documentary that comprehensively tackles the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; its historical root causes and how it ended up currently.
The film opens with a powerful quote by Stephen Howking that says, “The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.”
The film starts with painful footage from different countries that have gone through military occupation like Ireland, Algeria, South Africa, and India along with the American civil rights movement. These scenes of blatant prejudice are shown side by side with equally painful footage of Israeli violent crackdown on the Palestinians.
The scenes, preceded by the quote, tell from the beginning that you are about to watch a film that has a different narrative other than that adopted by the mainstream American media,
The documentary then goes deep into history. It traces the beginning of the Zionist movement, Balfour Declaration which promised a Jewish homeland in Palestine. It then covers a series of key historic events that shapes the Palestinian-Israeli conflict; the 1948 war, the 1967 six-day war, the first Intifada, the Oslo Peace Process, and the second Intifada. The film also sheds light on the abject suffering of the victimized Palestinian civilians through their testimonials.
‘Occupation 101’ is a must-watch to those who are not good at history and do not know the roots of the issue. It is also recommended to the younger generations of Arabs to clearly understand the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
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