Alternative Insight

Subtext in a Docudrama, Its What We do, Reveals Israel's Mind


One-dimensional news is reported in a detached manner, describing events in words that may dramatize, entice and startle but do not capture strong emotions -- the violence, hysteria , screams and wails, the face of death and the loss of life. Words move the senses for a moment but soon lose their effect; not sufficiently registering themselves within the brain's cerebral cortex.

Two-dimensional video and camera provide a less static and more meaningful record of extreme situations. Viewing the images stimulates the optic nerves, which carry the messages to permanent placement in the memory banks. Two problems -- in situations that demand a camera record, cameras are often not available or allowed and the camera coverage is often too focused and limited.

Another method to provide a complete awareness of a tragic situation is by recreating the situation in a docudrama, the staging of an event, which allows portrayal of more complete action and creation of greater impact. Detractors may criticize the presentation as being subjective, one of verisimilitude, the appearance of reality. How seriously the staging convinces the audience depends upon how credible is the interpretation from the known record.

Israeli soldiers from the group known as Breaking the Silence have gathered testimonies from 60 of their fellow soldiers who fought during Israel's 22-day offensive (December 27, 2008-January 18, 2009) in the Gaza Strip. The testimonies have been compiled into a 237-page report titled This Is How We Fought in Gaza. Reading the testimonies and viewing photographs of their actions provides a framework from which to evaluate the extent of oppression and violence against the Palestinian people. Lacking in the document are the voices, the sounds, the looks, the emotions, the actions, and the dynamic movements that complete the words and images. Re-enactment by political theater satisfies the demands of the situations -- portraying them with urgency and reality. This has been done in a theatrical presentation, It's What We do, a staged re-enactment of Israel's human rights violations during its occupation of Palestinian lands and oppression of the Palestinian people.

Actors playing three Israeli soldiers reply to inquiries of their behavior in the oppression of the Palestinians by recreating incidents in which they committed human rights violations. Actors playing several Palestinians react to the violence committed against them -- house demolitions, destruction of olive trees, beatings, checkpoint delays and other. The live action adds a dimension that the news reports and camera lack -- proving more shocking, stirring the conscience to a higher level and providing more understanding of the despair of those who suffer from the attacks. The credibility of the docudrama is unquestionable -- thousands of eyewitness reports, video accounts and proven testimony from victims verify the truth of what is shown on stage.

The effects of the violence are constrained and can be considered softer than the enormity of the brutality visited upon the Palestinians. The constraint results from not knowing the previous life of these Palestinians. Without knowing their previous joy, we have insufficient reference for the depths of their despair. Without knowing the development of the Israeli soldiers we cannot evaluate the extent of their frustration and feelings of betrayal. If the full reach of the violence committed against the Palestinians was shown -- killings of entire families, beatings and incarceration of children, intentional woundings, destruction of agriculture and water supplies, and many other ferocious assaults that batter the senses, the incidents might be too shocking to absorb, and the audience might be overwhelmed. Staged drama has its limits on the sounds of a roar, the expressions of anguish and the loudness of screams. Beyong those limits we tend to place our hands before our eyes and block the awful scene.

Where the drama excels is in its subtext -- underlying thoughts that are not said but become revealed as the drama unfolds. Three of sixty Israeli soldiers from Breaking the Silence recite the brutality they have seen committed against the Palestinians. Where are the voices of the hundreds of thousands of other Israeli soldiers who during decades have committed war crimes and witnessed severe human rights violations? Obviously, they have been silenced, and a mindset developed by indoctrination governs their actions. Just as Israel took its Jewish immigrants and converted them into a new Jew, the Israeli Jew with a new language, new customs, new culture, Israel has created a new person, the Israeli person, an egocentric and ethnocentric person, who has no realization of the damage he/she inflicts upon others, and no sensitivity to the pain and suffering caused by his/her actions.

If It's What We do,has a principal moral, it may be that those who aid and abet in the destruction of others will soon destroy themselves.

alternative insight
july, 2015

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