The Settlers

The two-hour documentary of the history of the Israel settlement or colonization enterprise by director Shimon Dotan underscores the growing influence of West Bank settlers that includes the tight cooperation of American and French religious Jews and evangelical Christians. The documentary shows the different forces that shape the lives of the settlers.

The documentary explores the beginning of the colonization of the occupied Palestinian territories, the changes that were imposed on Israeli and Palestinian society, and their impact on the Middle East and the world as a whole. Many of these colonialists are racist zealots. They are as extreme as their counterparts on the Islamite side. 

The „new“ settler colonialism started with the occupation of territories in June 1967. In this war of aggression, Israel had tripled its territory. It conquered Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem.

Dotan’s focus ranges neatly “from opportunistic families seeking less costly living conditions to Western-style hippies; messianic, religious extremists to idealistic farmers; settler ‘patriarchs’ to new converts. Israeli intellectuals, politicos, and academics weigh in on this conundrum: How can approximately a half-million people be allowed to stand in the way of a Middle Eastern peace settlement the world so desperately needs?”

Hopefully, many American Jews will see this documentary in order to open their eyes to which racist enterprise they are a partner with. But the crux of the problem are not only the settlers but first of all the expansionist ideology of Zionism. Peace will only come to Israel and Palestine after Zionism vanished.

In German.

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