Barricades (film)
Barricades Hebrew , Mitrasim was one of the first documentary films created for Israeli television. It tells the story of two families, one Jewish and the other Palestinian, who both lost children during Israels War of Independence, known to Palestinians as the Naqba, or Catastrophe. The film, directed by Ram Loevy, caused considerable controversy when it aired onAugust 1972. It was the first time that an Arab viewers had a chance to experience the emotional significance of the Holocaust for Jews, and it was also the first time that Israeli Jews had an opportunity to experience the emotional significance of the Naqba to the Palestinian people.
Yet even Tadmors decisions was guarded. He agreed to screen Barricades, but only as part of a popular talk show, The Third Hour, so that the content could be discussed by a panel of experts, which would ideally include both Arabs and Jews. Only Jews participated, however. One Arab guest, Muhammad Ali Jaabari, mayor of Hebron and a Jordanian parliamentarian, refused to participate. At the same time, Israels Foreign Minister Abba Eban refused to appear with a second guest, Anwar Nusseibeh, former Jordanian defense minister and governor of Jerusalem. In the end, none of them participated, and the Director General of the IBA Shmuel Almog decided not to replace them.An editorial published in the newspaper Maariv two days after Barricades was aired noted that in the end, the ensuing discussion was unbalanced. Not only did the film fail to present the Palestinian side of the issue, but the remaining guests were either politicians or people known for their political positions. It added that whereas Loevy had succeeded in depicting an emotional portrait of two families personal tragedies, the guests focused on the political issues while engaging in a game of political oneupmanship with the absent representatives of the Palestinians. It would have been better, wrote the author, if intellectuals, whose conscious is plagued by the problems inherent in our relationship with the Arabs, had participated. ........
Source: Wikipedia