Ma’abarot
Courtesy of production.
מעברות | Dina Zvi Riklis | Israel, 2019 | Hebrew (English subtitles) | Documentary | 84m | DCP | IMDB | Distributor/Sales: Go2Films | Festival marketing sample: AJFF 2020 | Trailer | DocuShuk
Description: The trauma and anger of survivors of the transit camps set up in Israel to absorb Jewish refugees is very palpable in this powerful documentary. While initial arrivals included Europeans notably from Romania and Poland, many of these were re-accommodated in permanent housing following the 1952 reparations agreement with West Germany. Many of their Mizrahi (former Middle Eastern and North African) neighbours continued to live in squalid conditions for decades afterwards. Even today, Israeli slum dwellings are often remnants of officially abolished transit camps. The ruling Ashkenazi elites, contemptuous and disdainful, openly discriminated against them. The sense of injustice and disaffection felt by their victims has contributed to a deep chasm in Israeli politics to this day. This cinematically conventional documentary supplements the testimonies of survivors with a voiceover narration, contributions by a couple of historians, archival footage, newspaper clippings and readings from official documents.
Merits: While originally a four part documentary TV series, this feature version covers many lesser known themes in its 84 minutes. Some viewers will undoubtedly have heard of the humiliation felt by refugees who were greeted with DDT fumigation. Fewer will be aware of the forced confinement, suspicious disappearance of children, painful (and sometimes unnecessary) treatments for ringworm, collective punishment of camp dwellers and other miseries endured by the internees. Even more shocking than the blatantly racist narration in some of the newsreel footage is the cynical use made of these populations to serve the strategic interests of the state: their hurried importation into a country ill equipped to absorb them in order to rebalance the majority Palestinian population and their repeated, sometimes violent, displacement into different camps in order to increase local Jewish presence.
Rating: Suitable for all audiences.
Programming considerations: Particular appeal for Israeli expatriates.