Two films up for the Oscar this year are about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. “The Gatekeepers" features frank testimony from former heads of Shin Bet, Israel's intelligence bureau, while “5 Broken Cameras" was shot by a Palestinian farmer documenting peaceful protests in his village. The two films examine the conflict from contrasting viewpoints, one through the eyes of the occupier and the other through those of the occupied. The thread that connects them is not just their genre, both are documentaries, or that both directors are Israelis. An even stronger link is the true, powerful reflection they portray of events on the ground. The Gatekeepers features candid interviews with retired Israeli spymasters who express their criticism of the nation as a police state. Former members of Israel's Shin Bet security agency are surprisingly honest about their country's policies toward Palestinians - the targeted assassination of Hamas activists, the torture (sometimes fatal) of Palestinian prisoners and about the other tactics that are part of the arsenal of occupation. The film's message is that Israel has failed to transform its military superiority into a lasting peace. As such, the men seem to be thirsting for peace. It's easy to see them as mouthpieces for the majority of the region's people — sick of war, sick of needless death, sick of struggling with their conscience at every turn. The epitome of political activism, 5 Broken Cameras is a first-hand account of non-violent resistance in Bil'in, a West Bank village threatened by encroaching Israeli settlements and a wall of separation. Shot almost entirely by a Palestinian farmer, it is structured around the violent destruction by Israeli forces of each one of the farmer's cameras. As we watch, olive trees are bulldozed, protests intensify, and lives are lost. The story of one man's life is transformed into one that is universal, offering witness to events that are too often portrayed as too distant to understand or to make a difference in the lives of others. It helps to see what life is like in occupied Palestine. It presents with overwhelming power a case of injustice on a massive scale. The films are in real time. The ex-officers in The Gatekeepers discuss their controversial methods and whether the ends ultimately justify the means. The criticism they voice does not come from leftists but from the heart of the defense establishment. They are responsible for targeted assassinations, for torture, for getting information. Yet even when they offer up damning testimony against their organization, there's no real threat that they'll ever be held accountable for it. 5 Broken Cameras is about the experience of West Bank protests from the inside. It's the kind of material that never makes the nightly news, and it shows directly, as one critic wrote, what it's like being on the receiving end of oppression and dispossession. For their portrayal of the real thing and their powerful testimonies, should either film in the Best Documentary Feature category receive an Academy Award on Feb. 24, it would be a victory for the Palestinians as well as for the movie.
