New Film - Israel: Rise of the Right

7 Tammuz 5769

Tonight, a couple of friends began alerting me about a film just released by Ilan Mizrahi, "Israel: Rise of the Right."

(AlJazeeraEnglish YouTube) Ilan Mizrahi has spent 16 years photographing and filming right wing Israeli settlers in the West Bank city of Hebron. His film, Israel: Rise of the Right, looks at the followers of Rabbi Meir Kahane, an American-born rabbi and politician who proposed the mass expulsion of Arabs from Israel before he was assassinated in 1990.

I immediately began asking around who this guy was, whether it was a hack job, or worth watching because [as has been said in Rabbi Binyamin Kahane's HY"D name] "We want everyone to think we are crazy. Then maybe they will leave us alone."

The answer I got from my friend, political activist, the "Kalashnikover Rebbe" was quite surprising:

There are a few facts wrong here and there, but it wasn't biased at all, shockingly so. He focused all on Baruch Marzel and Itamar Ben-Gvir. He did not acknowledge the other factions and Kahanists, but not to anyone's detriment.

Ilan Mizrahi has even given over footage which served to exonerate Jews in court. So, so it is clear he is not out to get us.

I think it was a nice job. He filmed us for years. He has even become a "part of the community," and a regular presence at all our "events."

The four parts of the film are embedded below, together totaling 46 minutes. The film is mostly in Hebrew with English subtitles, with narration in English.

Part 1 includes scenes of police treatment of protesters, the court battle to march in the Israeli Arab city of Um Al-Fahm, and the ironic appointment of Baruch Marzel to supervise the balloting in that cities during the Shevat 5769/February, 2009 Israeli Elections.



What I found interesting about Part 2 was that the accusations shouted by Arabs regarding a fascist [Israeli] state are much the same as I would hear [and sometimes say myself] in the [minority] Torah-loyal towns in the Shomron (Samaria). Also,...

1. Many of the "600 extremists" living in Hevron are actually somewhat mamlakhi (state-loyal) with a lot of cognitive dissonance. But, as the local saying goes, "A Hevron mamlakhi is nothing like an Ofra mamlakhi." Hardly extremists, they are simply pushed farther and more often than most other towns.

2. Purim is NOT the "Jewish Halloween." OY!

3. Like in Part 1, I got to see a lot of friends and acquaintances, like Gil'ad Pollack, who once described for me being [completely] strip-searched on the street and in front of female officers. Now, B"H, Gil'ad is married with children, but continues to be moser nefesh (self-sacrificing). Many "hilltop youth" get married young, like in many Haredi communities. Rabbi Meir Kahane HY"D once said that the greatest weapon the Arabs had was,...babies. His followers got the message. Fortunately, leftist and "post-Zionist" secularists did not. The birthrates of religious communities continues to be greater than nonreligious communities.



Part 3 mentions Eden Natan-Zada HY"D. I, myself, did not get to go to Eden's funeral. I knew him, though, I remember him as a sensitive and kind, young man.

This part then shifts to singer Dov Shurin. Apparently, the courts cannot touch him for any "incitement," as he only uses p'suqim (verses) from Tana"kh (Bible). However, we must not get complacent. I believe that it is only a matter of time before the Erev Rav-controlled government of Israel (GOI) attempts to censor Holy texts. Think I am crazy? Former MK Yossi Sarid (Mere"tz) already proposed such a measure back in 1998, to cancel the reading of Megillath Esther on Purim, due to its "racism."

There is mention of the pogrom at Amona. Sultan Knish provides a comprehensive set of Amona videos, I recommend over the limited footage included in this film.

Later, Gil'ad (8:20) provides his perspective on the "Arab-Israeli Conflict."



Part 4 begins with the situation of those Jews who were forcibly removed from their homes in Azza, back in 5765/2005. The film shows their makeshift bomb shelters they have been having to depend on to protect them from the barrage of rockets fired from Hamas in Azza.

This part goes onto the elections, including the election of Dr. Micha'el Ben-Ari (National Union) to Knesseth. (By the way, the Likud Party is not, I repeat not, a right-wing party.*)

The film culminates with the "Flag March" in Um Al-Fahm, the court battle of which was presented in the beginning of Part 1.



Cross-posted on Esser Agaroth.

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*There is no such thing as "right" or "left," only Jewish and un-Jewish.