Turf wars

>> The plight of Palestinians is exposed in Mohammed Alatar’s doc The Iron Wall

UNSETTLING: The Iron Wall

by MATTHEW HAYS

As The Iron Wall opens, one thing becomes immediately apparent. The illuminating documentary, which screens in both English and French versions for one night only, today, has clearly been made on the barest of budgets. Due to the newfound popularity and box-office potential of non-fiction filmmaking, we’ve become pretty spoiled, given the slickness of such features as Taxi to the Dark Side.

But what The Iron Wall lacks in finesse, it makes up for with the sheer weight of its profound content. Indeed, those who wonder about the cause of such extreme anger on the part of Arabs in the Middle East should see this film—it’s a nasty reminder of just how insidious and unscrupulous much of the Israeli government’s policies are regarding the Palestinians.

Director Mohammed Alatar shows us the brutal treatment many Palestinians suffer at the hands of extremist settlers—many of whom view the Old Testament as a real estate guide, effectively ordaining the land to them—and at the guns of Israeli soldiers. But lest this descend into a one-sided rant with only Palestinian testimonials, The Iron Wall features interviews with former Israeli soldiers who valiantly fess up to the various abuses of basic human rights they consistently got away with.

When the papers would report that the Israeli military had shot back at armed insurgents, one soldier says the stories were basically complete fiction, and that attacks on Palestinians were part of a larger effort to push them off the land. There is also devastating footage of Israeli officials taking chainsaws to olive trees—olives being a prime source of income for Palestinians, who have farmed the land there for generations.

The title, of course, refers to the wall that the Israeli government is building to protect their citizens. But The Iron Wall indicates quite clearly that such a wall will only serve as a massive land grab for Israel, and another huge setback for Palestinians and any hope that they’ll ever be able to form their own state.

There’s nothing remotely uplifting about The Iron Wall—it left me shocked and sick to my stomach. But it demands to be seen.

The Iron Wall screens tonight, Thursday,
April 17 at the CinÉma du Parc at 7 p.m.
(French version) and 9 p.m. (English version);
a discussion will follow the screenings

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