STATE 194

The Toronto International Film Festival 2012 showed a number of excellent films including films from Palestine, Jordan and Israel. Eagles from Israel shows a pair of retired Israeli soldiers who go on a killing spree, wiping out more than a dozen young Israelis who they see as living the hedonistic life in betrayal of the principles upon which Israel was founded. Intended as satire, it nonetheless contains both wry/black humour and suggestions of the new Israel not knowing what to do with its founding veterans. When I Saw You is s superb depiction of pro-Palestine fighters in a Jordan training camp in 1967, which included Communist and Che Guevara types supporting the Palestinians. 'Focus, endurance and patience' as their motto, these people are anything but the fanatics they are conventionally portrayed as. State 194 shows the attempt to build a Palestinian state on new principles - building institutions and infrastructure, attempting to heal the divisions in Fatah and Hamas, and reject terrorism despite provocations and violence by Israel. A superb documentary that (by the way) shows Israeli courts of 'law' ordering the eviction in East Jerusalem of Palestinians from homes they have lived in since before 1948 (when the state of Israel was created) on the theory that 'God promised Israel to the Jews', forgetting that Yahweh also said that 'Thou shall not steal'. What the Nazis did to Jews in Poland, Zio-Nazis are doing to Palestinians in Israel. Israel's creation was supported by the 'great powers' from territory taken from Palestine; but the US effectively vetoed the attempt by what is Palestine today to become a state, even as 119 out of 193 countries at the time of the attempt supported this effort. The charade of US-Israeli desire for 'peace' continues as more and more settlements continue to be built on Palestinian land, continuing the theft with the US doing nothing to stop it (example they could cut the annual $5 billion aid to Israel). Was it Netanyahu who said 'the Palestinians already have a state - Jordan'? As caretaker PM Fayyad of Palestine says at the end - Palestinians have no option but to be optimistic.