Judah & Mohammad (2006) watch online HD

Any documentary comparing the Israeli and Palestinian positions in the longest running conflict of our times is bound to stir up some controversy. There will always be those who say it was too partisan to one side or the other. The situations of Judah and Mohammad are only examples and not directly comparable. For a start Mohammad is a part of what appears to be a functioning nuclear family while Judah lives with his single mother and experiences the hardships of a difficult family situation. Nonetheless by the end of the film some clearcut facts have emerged to inform us of what is going on here. Mohammad demonstrates no preparedness to come to any reconciliation with his Israeli neighbours. At school there is one doctrinaire position - the Palestinians were expelled from their lands in 1948 and they intend to get them all back including Jerusalem, whatever the cost. In Judah's classroom there is open discussion with differing viewpoints being given and a preparedness to seek out a peaceful solution to this age old conflict. The director has avoided giving us a one-sided polemic and hopefully those who see this film will perceive some of the underlying realities that make it almost impossible to resolve this dispute.

Met this director at a bar -- he claimed to be a "liberal" ultra-Zionist while saying he was excited that Sharon died because Mohammad became involved in an altercation that was "great for a documentary." This absolutely stands in the way of any solidarity with Palestinians and makes the film another normalizing work. Then found out through a friend that he said verbatim, "I don't care if Palestinian children die." Not going to lie, this spoiled the film for me a bit. Definitely a way to make money off of death. This is a troubling trend in the documentary industry that profits off of the occupation. While the film has some interesting shots and vignettes, (of course the lives of these young men matter), they are not in a one to one relationship. Even though this film and this director attempt to bring this across, it is clear that the director's point of view directly influences the discourse surrounding the conflict.

The previous review says much that I'd want to say about imbalance between the family situations of Judah and Mohammed. Cohen imposed his own presuppositions at times, for instance attributing the macho culture amongst the lads in Judah's school to Israeli society being somehow brutalized by war when in reality such behaviour is typical amongst 15 year old boys. Too much psychobabble there then! In the classrooms the lazy stereotyping of the 'other side' by Palestinian and Israeli students was depressingly familiar.

However, it was the role of the teachers that really stood out to me - and it also struck some Year 9 school students when I showed it to them.

The way in which Mohammed's prejudices were being created, reinforced and affirmed by every teacher in the school, including the Head who congratulated him for getting arrested for stone throwing at IDF personnel and lionizing his violence, was in stark contrast to the thoughtful ways in which Israeli teachers challenged the cynicism of their students about the peace process and about racist stereotyping.

Filmed during the 2nd intifada and possibly the withdrawal from Gaza this was a film which highlighted just how difficult it is going to be to get a peace process to work.

It was depressing to see that while Judah's teachers encouraged their students to reflect upon the need to understand Palestinian anger and demands, there was absolutely no will whatsoever from Mohammed's teachers to do the same. Instead they demonised Israel and nurtured their students' sense of Palestinian victimhood and grievance.

Both sides have a way to go to prepare their people for peaceful co-existence, but this film demonstrated that only one side has the will to do it.