Online Virtual Event - Start Time is 12:00 Noon US EDT; 7:00 PM Palestine Time.
Film is in Hebrew with English subtitles, 2013, Runtime: 1:41
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Synopsis
The film chronicles Israel's 43-year military legal system in the Occupied Palestinian Territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The story unfolds through interviews with the architects of this legal system juxtaposed with historical footage showing the enactment of these laws upon the Palestinian population.
Since Israel conquered the territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the 1967 war, the military has imposed thousands of orders and laws, established military courts, sentenced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, enabled half a million Israeli "settlers" to move to the Occupied Territories and developed a system of long-term jurisdiction by an occupying army that is unique in the entire world.
The men entrusted with creating this new legal framework were the members of Israel's military legal corps. Responding to a constantly changing reality, these legal professionals have faced (and continue to face) complex judicial and moral dilemmas in order to develop and uphold a system of long-term military “rule by law” of an occupied population, all under the supervision of Israel's Supreme Court, and, according to Israel, in complete accordance with international law.
The Law In These Parts explores this unprecedented and little-known story through testimonies of the military legal professionals who were the architects of the system and helped run it in its formative years. The film attempts to ask some crucial questions that are often skirted or avoided: Can such an occupation be achieved within a legal framework that includes genuine adherence to the principles of rule-of-law? Should it? What are the costs that a society engaged in such a long term exercise must bear? And what are the implications of the very effort to make a documentary film about such a system?
Reviews
November 13, 2012
Lawyers and the Seasoning of Justice in Israel’s Occupied Territories
The New York Times, by Rachel Saltz
"By keeping its focus admirably tight, the sober and sobering Israeli documentary “The Law in These Parts” presents a devastating case against the occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Investigating the legal system in the occupied territories, the film is fundamentally an inquiry into justice. It makes a forceful argument: Justice and the occupation are incompatible."
November 16, 2012
The Law In These Parts
New York Post, by Farran Smith Nehme
"“The Law in These Parts’’ more than accomplishes its goal of provoking a discussion about imposing laws on people who have no say in making them. “When it goes on for 40 years,” asks Livni, “how can the system function? How can it be just?”
Ra’anan Alexandrowicz
Ra’anan Alexandrowicz is an Israeli film director, screenwriter and editor. He is known for the documentary The Law in These Parts (2011), which received the Grand Jury Award at the Sundance Film Festival, a Peabody award, and numerous other prizes. His earlier documentaries, The Inner Tour (2001) and Martin (1999), were shown in the Berlin Film Festival’s Forum section and MoMA’s New Directors / New Films series. Alexandrowicz’s single fiction feature, James’ Journey to Jerusalem (2003), premiered in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight and at the Toronto International Film Festival and received several international awards. Alexandrowicz’s films have been released theatrically in the United States and Europe, and broadcast by PBS, ARTE, the BBC, as well as other television channels. Ra’anan served several times as an editing advisor for the Sundance Documentary Fund and his film The Viewing Booth is supported by the Sundance Art of Nonfiction initiative.