Budrus (film)

Budrus is a 2009 IsraeliPalestinianAmerican documentary film directed by Julia Bacha, produced by Ronit Avni, Rula Salameh, and Julia Bacha, and with a screenplay by Bacha. The film is about nonviolent demonstrations conducted by the residents of Budrus a Palestinian town in the Ramallah and alBireh Governorate during the early 2000s to protest against the building of the Israeli West Bank barrier inside of the village.

In 2004, The Nation reported that if the planned construction of the Israeli West Bank barrier continued along its designated course, the 1,200 residents of Budrusthe vast majority of whom depend on agriculture for workwill lose a large portion of their fields. An Israeli bulldozer has already carved a preliminary path, and uprooted trees lie in its wake. According to the official map released by Israels Defense Ministry, the proposed route of the separation barrier will not only pass through this patch of land but will also loop around to encircle Budrus and eight nearby villages, creating a closed enclave with a population of 25,000. Once the area is sealed, access to fields, offices, construction sites, university classrooms, friends and relatives outside the enclave will be restricted. In response, the residents began to hold nonviolent protests. Haaretz stated that although curfews were established to prevent the protests, mainly young men violated the curfew and walked to the olive grove, to prevent the bulldozers from doing their work. Up to this week, the bulldozers have not returned to work after they already uprooted about 60 olive trees.In a 2010 interview with The Jewish News Weekly of Northern California, Budrus producer Ronit Avni stated that the film was made in response to questions concerning the existence of Palestinian nonviolence movements. She further argued that, often the phrase that followed this question was something along the lines of, If only Palestinians adopted nonviolence, there would be peace. The film explores what it looks like when a Palestinian nonviolence movement emerges. And what is the Israeli response? In another interview with the Montreal Mirror, she added that after investigating instances of Palestinians and Israelis working together towards peace through nonviolence, All of our research kept leading us back to Budrus ... And most Israelis and Palestinians did not know the story of this village. ........

Source: Wikipedia