Another masterpiece by Palestinian director Elia Suleiman, "The Time That Remains" chronicles Israel and Palestine's violent relationship. Deftly mixing drama, comedy, history and metaphysics, the film's first section watches as Arab resistance movements take up arms against the newly formed state of Israel. These movements slowly peter out, however, and pretty soon Suleiman's own family find themselves trapped within Israel, their new homeland. Here they eke out a living, and try to shrug off the literal and psychic violence directed at them from the Israeli majority.
The film's second half finds Suleiman returning to Israel from abroad. Part of the Palestinian diaspora, he's a man caught out of place and time, his identity seemingly stolen. We watch as Suleiman drifts in and out of spaces, never speaking, slowly confronting the fact that he will not witness Palestinian independence within his lifetime. Perpetually behind enemy lines, his body seems haunted by occupation forces. Ironically, even Jews no longer recognise "their Israel". "Where am I now?" an Israel taxi driver asks, when clouds of fog part to reveal a land whose borders always change.
Suleiman's films have always been attacked by Zionist groups. Such attacks epitomise Israel's own deep-rooted insecurity. She was "illegally" formed in the late 1940s, the result of rigged UN votes, a by-passing of the UN Security Council (who shot down Resolution 181 and the UNSCOP proposals), and the violent ejecting of some 750,000 Palestinians from their land before any lawful international consensus was reached. While there is nothing inherently wrong with the idea of "Israel", the sheer speed, inhumanity and tactlessness at which she was created would lead to decades of conflict. Zionists, Arabs, the UN and Britain were complicit in this tactlessness.
While many Jews supported Israel's "re-formation", many prominent ones didn't. Albert Einstein would state that "the essential nature of Judaism resists the idea of a Jewish state" and was deeply "afraid of the damage Judaism would sustain by this new nationalism". Lessing Rosenwald, president of the American Council for Judaism, would prophetically say in 1944: "The concept of a racial state – the Hitlerian concept - is repugnant to the civilised world. I urge that we do nothing to set us back on the road to the past. To project at this time the creation of a Jewish state or commonwealth is to launch a singular innovation in world affairs which might well have incalculable consequences."
Regardless, 55 percent of Palestine was, in an instant, taken by a Jewish population who had previously controlled 7 percent. The Palestinian majority, and their right to self determination, was swiftly ignored. Many massacres were committed in these early years (Deir Yassin etc), acts of ethnic cleansing which snowballed into the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, which saw Israel capturing 78 percent of Palestinian land. Towns were obliterated and renamed, maps were redrawn and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians became refugees.
Next came the Sinai/Suez war (1956), when Israel, Britain and France set about bombing Egypt and invading the Sinai peninsula. After years of further squabbles, the Six Day War began in 1967 with Israel launching surprise air-raids on Egypt. Israel swiftly occupied the last remaining 22 percent of Palestinian land, as well as parts of Egypt and Syria (the Golan Heights, never returned). Of this attack, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin would say: "The Egyptian army concentrations in the Sinai approaches did not prove Egypt was really about to attack us. We must be honest with ourselves. We decided to attack them." Henceforth, Arab/Israeli relations only get worse.
The 1973 war followed, this time started by Egypt and Syria. Contrary to common portrayals, this war did not involve an attack on Israel, but saw Egyptian/Syrian forces confining their operations to sovereign Egyptian/Syrian lands that had been occupied by the IDF since 1967. As for Palestine, it would increasingly come to resemble a giant concentration camp, walls and checkpoints erected, its infrastructure annihilated and more of its land slowly confiscated. Meanwhile, roughly 8 million dollars a day would flow from the US to Israel, the tiny nation swiftly becoming a regional superpower.
Over the decades, numerous peace plans would be drawn up (most famously UN 242), most of which were rejected by Israel/the US for very specific reasons: the fear that a Palestinian majority will develop within Israel ("the demographic problem") and the fear that acquired land and settlements, all of which are deemed illegally acquired by the International Court of Justice, will have to be returned ("the withdrawal problem"). Since 1976, there has been overwhelming international consensus in support of a two state Israel/Palestine in keeping with internationally recognised borders, even though this grants Palestine far less land than it "deserves". The consensus includes Arab states and the Organisation of Islamic States. The US and Israel have blocked these proposals for almost 4 decades.
The Palestinian Liberation Organisation was formed in 1964. Since 1974 it has been recognised by the UN as the "government" of Palestine. Israel and the US categorise it a "terrorist organisation". The PLO would recognise Israel's right to exist in peace in 1993, accepting UN242 and rejecting all violence and terrorism. Also "representing" Palestine is Fatah, a major political party within the PLO, and Hamas, an ultra right-wing offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, at times backed by Britain/Mossad to essentially destroy the PLO and provide justification for Israeli counter-violence. Israel would also invade Lebanon several times (as well as mounting hundreds of illegal incursions), all in an attempt to expel the PLO from Lebanon, dethrone the Lebanese government and install pro-Christian leaders (Bachir Gemayel). The militant organisation, Hezbollah, was formed in response to these invasions. Israel would also back the South Lebanese Army and the Kataeb Party (the Lebanese Phalanges Party), violent right-wing sects. These groups used the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon as cover for their slaughters of Palestinian refugees. The point? Talk, think and deliberate, before drawing lines on maps.
8.5/10 – Masterpiece.
The film's second half finds Suleiman returning to Israel from abroad. Part of the Palestinian diaspora, he's a man caught out of place and time, his identity seemingly stolen. We watch as Suleiman drifts in and out of spaces, never speaking, slowly confronting the fact that he will not witness Palestinian independence within his lifetime. Perpetually behind enemy lines, his body seems haunted by occupation forces. Ironically, even Jews no longer recognise "their Israel". "Where am I now?" an Israel taxi driver asks, when clouds of fog part to reveal a land whose borders always change.
Suleiman's films have always been attacked by Zionist groups. Such attacks epitomise Israel's own deep-rooted insecurity. She was "illegally" formed in the late 1940s, the result of rigged UN votes, a by-passing of the UN Security Council (who shot down Resolution 181 and the UNSCOP proposals), and the violent ejecting of some 750,000 Palestinians from their land before any lawful international consensus was reached. While there is nothing inherently wrong with the idea of "Israel", the sheer speed, inhumanity and tactlessness at which she was created would lead to decades of conflict. Zionists, Arabs, the UN and Britain were complicit in this tactlessness.
While many Jews supported Israel's "re-formation", many prominent ones didn't. Albert Einstein would state that "the essential nature of Judaism resists the idea of a Jewish state" and was deeply "afraid of the damage Judaism would sustain by this new nationalism". Lessing Rosenwald, president of the American Council for Judaism, would prophetically say in 1944: "The concept of a racial state – the Hitlerian concept - is repugnant to the civilised world. I urge that we do nothing to set us back on the road to the past. To project at this time the creation of a Jewish state or commonwealth is to launch a singular innovation in world affairs which might well have incalculable consequences."
Regardless, 55 percent of Palestine was, in an instant, taken by a Jewish population who had previously controlled 7 percent. The Palestinian majority, and their right to self determination, was swiftly ignored. Many massacres were committed in these early years (Deir Yassin etc), acts of ethnic cleansing which snowballed into the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, which saw Israel capturing 78 percent of Palestinian land. Towns were obliterated and renamed, maps were redrawn and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians became refugees.
Next came the Sinai/Suez war (1956), when Israel, Britain and France set about bombing Egypt and invading the Sinai peninsula. After years of further squabbles, the Six Day War began in 1967 with Israel launching surprise air-raids on Egypt. Israel swiftly occupied the last remaining 22 percent of Palestinian land, as well as parts of Egypt and Syria (the Golan Heights, never returned). Of this attack, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin would say: "The Egyptian army concentrations in the Sinai approaches did not prove Egypt was really about to attack us. We must be honest with ourselves. We decided to attack them." Henceforth, Arab/Israeli relations only get worse.
The 1973 war followed, this time started by Egypt and Syria. Contrary to common portrayals, this war did not involve an attack on Israel, but saw Egyptian/Syrian forces confining their operations to sovereign Egyptian/Syrian lands that had been occupied by the IDF since 1967. As for Palestine, it would increasingly come to resemble a giant concentration camp, walls and checkpoints erected, its infrastructure annihilated and more of its land slowly confiscated. Meanwhile, roughly 8 million dollars a day would flow from the US to Israel, the tiny nation swiftly becoming a regional superpower.
Over the decades, numerous peace plans would be drawn up (most famously UN 242), most of which were rejected by Israel/the US for very specific reasons: the fear that a Palestinian majority will develop within Israel ("the demographic problem") and the fear that acquired land and settlements, all of which are deemed illegally acquired by the International Court of Justice, will have to be returned ("the withdrawal problem"). Since 1976, there has been overwhelming international consensus in support of a two state Israel/Palestine in keeping with internationally recognised borders, even though this grants Palestine far less land than it "deserves". The consensus includes Arab states and the Organisation of Islamic States. The US and Israel have blocked these proposals for almost 4 decades.
The Palestinian Liberation Organisation was formed in 1964. Since 1974 it has been recognised by the UN as the "government" of Palestine. Israel and the US categorise it a "terrorist organisation". The PLO would recognise Israel's right to exist in peace in 1993, accepting UN242 and rejecting all violence and terrorism. Also "representing" Palestine is Fatah, a major political party within the PLO, and Hamas, an ultra right-wing offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, at times backed by Britain/Mossad to essentially destroy the PLO and provide justification for Israeli counter-violence. Israel would also invade Lebanon several times (as well as mounting hundreds of illegal incursions), all in an attempt to expel the PLO from Lebanon, dethrone the Lebanese government and install pro-Christian leaders (Bachir Gemayel). The militant organisation, Hezbollah, was formed in response to these invasions. Israel would also back the South Lebanese Army and the Kataeb Party (the Lebanese Phalanges Party), violent right-wing sects. These groups used the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon as cover for their slaughters of Palestinian refugees. The point? Talk, think and deliberate, before drawing lines on maps.
8.5/10 – Masterpiece.