FROM BALFOUR
TO BANKSY
100 years ago Britain's Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour
set in motion the vision of Israel...
His 'Balfour Declaration' had another, disastrous impact:
the dispossession of the Palestinian people.
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY MARTIN BUCKLEY
PRODUCER MIRANDA PINCH
CAMERA AND EDITOR ALEXANDER WILKS
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SYNOPSIS
This film looks at other visions -- including a wide range of views from occupied Palestine today, ranging from anger to attempts at envisioning a future.
It also shows the vision of another Englishman: the contemporary artist Banksy, who has created in Palestine a hotel that is also a remarkable satirical art installation.
How do today's Palestinians live, behind the 'security wall'?
What change must come?
Producer’s Statement
This film does not question or oppose the existence of the state of Israel; we question the actions of Israel on occupied Palestinian land, and its discriminatory policies towards Palestinians in general. Critics of Israel's political policies are often maliciously denounced as anti-Semitic. As we do question certain policies and actions of the State of Israel, we wish to state explicitly and strenuously our opposition to any form of anti-Semitism. Further, given the often imprecise definitions of anti-Semitism that are in circulation, and are sometimes maliciously employed in an attempt to bring critics of Israeli politics into disrepute, we wish explicitly to state our opposition to anything that maligns the Jewish religion or Jews for being Jews, wherever they may be. Six of the principal speakers in this film are Jewish (as is the Producer); five of them are Israeli citizens.
This film is an attempt to support the goals of peace and reconciliation in Israel and Palestine. Reconciliation is impossible unless both sides face reality. This film looks at the losers in Palestine a century after Britain’s ‘Balfour Declaration’. And, 50 years after the end of the 1967 war, it records some of the realities of life for millions of contemporary Palestinians who still live in a military zone - who live behind a wall, in limited and stressful conditions, and with seriously compromised human rights.
We support democratic debate about the future direction of the Palestinian territory Israel holds - widely judged by the UN and other actors as an illegal occupation of territory taken during conflict. The UN has called on Israel to cease its expansion of new settlements on Palestinian land, and has stated that such a move will de-escalate tensions and enhance the security of all the peoples in the region. This, the official view of the UK, Russia, China the US, was clearly demonstrated by the passing of Resolution 2334 of the UN Security Council on December 26 2016.
http://www.un.org/webcast/pdfs/SRES2334-2016.pdf
We endorse that aspiration to peace.
Find out more about the Balfour Project here
"...nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights
of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine..."
Arthur (later Lord) Balfour
November 1917