#HOCUS FOCUS FILMS IN JERUSALEM TRIAL#
#HOCUS FOCUS FILMS IN JERUSALEM SERIES#

'That period of time was one in which the illusion of the proximity of peace was being dashed,' George Bisharat, professor of law at UC Hastings, told Salon. And with more than 100 Israeli deaths, he said, citizens of Israel demanded action from the government. Tirza doesn't address how many Palestinians were killed during this era. Dany Tirza, an Israeli army veteran and architect of the wall, who tells Alatar that after negotiations collapsed in 2000 between Israel and Palestine, terrorist attacks by some Palestinians began. 'Because many people around the world are aware of the ICJ ruling and many people thought that the ruling was a historic turning point in the bloody conflict,' he said, but the follow-through or lack thereof is far less examined or scrutinized. 'It's not customary for the judges to talk about their cases, especially a case like the wall, which is loaded with political implication.'īut for the filmmaker, who's made documentaries about Jerusalem and on topics like education, he wanted to look back at the case with the benefit of hindsight. 'Almost all of the characters of the film were very reluctant to talk on camera, especially the judges,' Alatar told Salon. The result is an impressive, multidimensional exploration of the timeline of events of the case from the voices who decided it, a feat that proved highly challenging to Alatar.

#HOCUS FOCUS FILMS IN JERUSALEM TRIAL#

Over an intense three-year process, Alatar traveled to Germany, Holland, Jordan, the U.S., and around Israel and Palestine to interview key figures in this decision, and to obtain footage from the trial and the UN hearings leading up to the court ruling and its aftermath.Īlatar talked to one of the wall's architects, members of the Palestinian legal team, a former legal adviser to the Israeli foreign ministry and several of the judges from ICJ who ruled on the case, including the lone dissenter. In 'Broken,' a new documentary to be released in June, Palestinian-American filmmaker Mohammed Alatar examines the groundbreaking court ruling and why 14 years later, the wall still stands. In 2004, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled 14-1 that this wall violated international law because of its confiscation of occupied Palestinian land and the way it severely restricted the movement and self-determination of Palestinians.

#HOCUS FOCUS FILMS IN JERUSALEM SERIES#

Palestinians, who work in Israel or in the settlements, have to line up hours before their shifts each day to trek through a series of checkpoints. To Palestinians and their international supporters, it is an 'apartheid wall.' Neighborhoods were arbitrarily sliced, families were isolated from each other and people were cut off from their work, education and resources. 'Most of the barrier ended up east of the pre-1967 line, inside West Bank territory, prompting international criticism and creating humanitarian problems for thousands of Palestinians trapped in enclaves between the barrier and Israel proper.' 'Israel made great efforts to loop the barrier around settlements and strategic areas of the West Bank that it wished to keep on its side under any future peace deal,' the New York Times said. Construction started in 2002 by Israel for 'security,' but according to the international community and law, its existence is illegal, given that the overwhelming majority of the 'separation barrier' stands not inside Israel's borders or even on the Green Line that splits Israel from occupied territory, but inside the West Bank. The 400 -mile wall meant to divide Israelis from Palestinians along the West Bank features concrete slabs that rise to more than 25 feet tall in some sections and exists as a fence in others.

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