The Right to Boycott Film Online

In five minutes, the video sounds the alarm on laws intended to take away Americans’ First Amendment right to boycott Israel. As masses throughout the US and around the world rally for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the Israeli assault and siege, many are recognizing boycotts and divestment as some of the most powerful tools available to bring about social change. But in dozens of US states (including Wisconsin), legislators have been trying to stand in their way, passing dangerous laws curtailing free speech. Anti-boycott laws have already cost people their jobs and contracts. From Texas to Arkansas to Arizona and beyond, citizens are fighting back. Watch the film and help spread the word.

“This short and powerful film makes it clear that support for the right to boycott Israel is a fight for First Amendment rights vital to all social justice movements, and worthy of their support.”
— Rashid Khalidi, Columbia University, Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies

Simone Zimmerman and Israelism with Mehdi Hasan

Rent Israelism through Jan 1, 2024: https://bit.ly/rentisraelism

About the film
When two young American Jews raised to unconditionally love Israel witness the brutal way Israel treats Palestinians, their lives take sharp left turns. They join a movement of young American Jews battling the old guard to redefine Judaism’s relationship with Israel, revealing a deepening generational divide over modern Jewish identity.

December 8 – 11, 2023
Film Israelism Worldwide Rental

Israelism

Hosted by Tikkun Olam Productions
On-demand
Dec 8, 1:00 AM EST – Dec 11, 1:00 AM EST
$5 for a 24 hour rental
Get Tickets

Now available to rent WORLDWIDE for the first time, for a limited time, only through Sunday, December 10th. After the film, watch Q&As with our film’s directors and main subjects:

    Watch Q&A with Co-Directors Erin Axelman & Sam Eilertsen, along with Rabbi Miriam Grossman and Unsettled podcast producer Ilana Levinson: https://youtu.be/6RMEQYNBytM

    Watch Q&A with main film subject Simone Zimmerman, along with Judaism Unbound podcast host Rabbi Lex Rofeberg: https://youtu.be/owg8iRvjse8

Featured recently in the NYT, The Guardian, and The Forward.

About the film
When two young American Jews raised to unconditionally love Israel witness the brutal way Israel treats Palestinians, their lives take sharp left turns. They join a movement of young American Jews battling the old guard to redefine Judaism’s relationship with Israel, revealing a deepening generational divide over modern Jewish identity.

Press coverage of Israelism

Genre: Documentary
Runtime: 1h 24m
Released: 2023
Director: Erin Axelman, Sam Eilertsen
Producer: Daniel Chalfen, Nadia Saah
 

Stream Just Vision Film Library for Free

Just Vision is a non-profit team of filmmakers, journalists, storytellers, and human rights advocates based in Israel-Palestine and the U.S. Founded in 2003, Just Vision is nonpartisan and religiously unaffiliated.

Browse their award-winning films below, all available to stream for free. For more films on Palestine, see the MRSCP Film Library.

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BOYCOTT
(2021)

When a news publisher in Arkansas, an attorney in Arizona, and a speech therapist in Texas are told they must choose between their jobs and their political beliefs, they launch legal battles that expose an attack on freedom of speech across 33 states in America.
FILM’S WEBSITE
Watch the Film

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More

NAILA AND THE UPRISING
(2017)

When a nation-wide uprising breaks out in 1987, a woman in Gaza must choose between love, family, and freedom. Undaunted, she embraces all three, joining a clandestine network of women in an inspiring story that weaves through the most vibrant, nonviolent mobilization in Palestinian history – the First Intifada.

FILM’S WEBSITE
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MY NEIGHBOURHOOD
(2012)

Mohammed El Kurd is a Palestinian boy growing up in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah. His family loses half of their home to Israeli settlers leading a campaign of court-sanctioned evictions to guarantee Jewish control of the area. This Peabody Award-winning film captures voices rarely heard, of those striving for a shared future in the city.

FILM’S WEBSITE
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HOME FRONT
(2012)

A series of four short films chronicling the resolve of a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem, where families are struggling to keep their homes in the face of escalating Israeli settlement expansion. Residents are surprised when support comes from the most unexpected of places. Richard Branson called Home Front “films that make a difference.”

Watch the Series

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BUDRUS
(2009)

Palestinian community organizer Ayed Morrar and his daughter Iltezam unite local Fatah and Hamas members along with Israeli supporters in an unarmed movement to save their village of Budrus from destruction by Israel’s Separation Barrier. Budrus won over 20 awards internationally and was hailed by the New York Times as the “must-see documentary of the year.”

FILM’S WEBSITE
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ENCOUNTER POINT
(2006)

A story of everyday leaders who refuse to sit back as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict escalates. Encounter Point follows a former Israeli settler, a Palestinian ex-prisoner, a bereaved Israeli mother and a wounded Palestinian bereaved brother who risk everything to promote a future of freedom, dignity, security and peace for everyone in the region.

FILM’S WEBSITE
Watch the Film

© 2023 Just Vision. All rights reserved.
 

November 15-30, 2023
Palestinian Voices Film Program

Transform the World through Arab Films

At the Arab Film and Media Institute (AFMI) we seek to continually change the narrative, share our stories, and foster understanding of our common humanity through art and storytelling.  In this dire time, we want to share a selection of films that showcase the history, culture and people of Palestine.

Our hope is that this free program, entitled PALESTINIAN VOICES, can be a resource to provide insight into the current situation unfolding in Gaza and the people being affected.

PALESTINIAN VOICES will run through the entire month of November.  You can watch most of the films in this series online and from anywhere in the world.  A few titles are limited to viewers in the United States and some films will also screen in person in select cities.
 

October 21, 2023
Film Israelism Online


 
Rochester Witness Palestine Film Festival
Israelism

Israelism (2023)

Saturday, October 21, 2023 at 3:00 pm ET/2:00 CT
Online only

Co-writers/directors: Erin Axelman and Sam Eilertsen
Run Time: 1:34
Language: English
Style: documentary
Year: 2023
Awards:

  • Best Documentary, Arizona International Film Festival 2023
  • Documentary Audience Award Winner, San Francisco Jewish Film Festival 2023

Projection medium: DCP
Tickets: free with registration

Trailer

 

Continue:

About The Film

Our guides through this movie are two young American Jews:

  1. Simone Zimmerman attended a “Jewish state school”, took part in a high school program in Israel, is a 2013 UC Berkeley grad, former Hillel member, and co-founder If Not Now
  2. Eitan grew up in a conservative Jewish family in Atlanta. Took his first Israel trip at age 8. After school graduation, volunteered for the IDF, speaks of a beating, which he didn’t report

When they witness Israel’s mistreatment of the Palestinian people with their own eyes, they are horrified and heartbroken – the Jewish institutions that raised them not only lied but built their Jewish identity around that lie. They join the movement of young American Jews battling the old guard over Israel’s centrality in American Judaism, and demanding freedom for the Palestinian people. Their stories reveal a generational divide in the American Jewish community as more young Jews question the narratives their synagogues and Hebrew school teachers fed them as children.

“Is that all the arguments the Zionists have: rockets, double standard, and antisemitism?”

– One of Simone’s summaries

Panelist

Co-writer/director Erin Axelman

By video conference

Erin is a trans Jewish filmmaker, based out of Somerville, MA. Israelism is their directorial debut. Erin and co-director Sam Eilertsen founded Tikkun Olam Productions, a nonprofit filmmaking collective that focuses on documenting and supporting movements for justice. Erin has produced videos for Senator Ed Markey, as well as Congressman Jamaal Bowman. They’ve also produced a series of short videos with Jacob Blake, who was shot by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin. In addition to Israelism they are currently producing the upcoming feature documentary Generation Green New Deal.

October 15, 2023
Voices From the Holy Land Online Film Salon: Israelism

Oct 15, 2023
2:00 PM Central

The modern nation of Israel, created by the UN in 1948, is central to the political and cultural life of the American Jewish community. But Israel has also become a deeply divisive subject, as painful generational cracks have emerged within the Jewish community. Points of contention–including Israel’s apartheid policies toward its non-Jewish citizens as well as its oppression of Palestinians living on occupied lands–have led to debate, protest, and even censorship.

Focusing on the stories of two young Americans raised to defend Israel at all costs, Israelism traces their awakening to Israel’s dehumanization of Palestinians and the ongoing violence of the occupation. The film explores the past, present, and future of the relationship between American Jews and Israel, as growing numbers question whether support for Israel should condition and define their Jewish identity. Featuring a range of American Jewish thinkers, community leaders and activists, Israelism asks how and why Israel became the cornerstone of American Judaism, what the consequences have been, and what will happen as divisions continue to grow.

Register below and join us on October 15 at 3:00 PM Eastern for a discussion with:
– Eric Axelman: filmmaker, co-founder of Tikkun Olam Productions
– Simone Zimmerman: Jewish American activist, co-founder of IfNotNow
– Lubna Alzaroo: instructor at the University of Washington specializing in settler colonialism
Our moderator will be Peter Beinart, Editor-at-Large, Jewish Currents; Professor of Journalism and Political Science, Newmark School of Journalism, CUNY; and Publisher, The Beinart Newsletter.

NOTE: After you register, you will immediately get an Approved response – BUT then look in your email for a message from Zoom with the word “Confirmation” at the end of the subject line…there you’ll find the link and password to watch the film in advance of the Salon event.
 

July 16, 2023 Webinar on the Film My Tree

Event Date: July 16, 2023
Time: 3 pm ET/ 2 pm CT/ 12 noon PT

Using children’s donations collected via “little blue boxes,” the Jewish National Fund has planted more than 250 million trees in Israel/Palestine. Ostensibly to “make the desert bloom,” the planting has radically altered the land’s biodiversity. My Tree follows filmmaker Jason Sherman’s journey to find the tree planted in his name on the occasion of his bar mitzvah. When he discovers that “his” tree is in a forest covering up a Palestinian village destroyed in 1967 – one of many forests hiding scores of destroyed villages – he seeks to learn the motivations behind JNF’s tree-planting enterprise and to understand his own culpability.

Watch the film for free at your convenience; Join the Q&A Discussion

Jason Sherman:  Jewish Canadian playwright, screenwriter, and filmmaker

Seth Morrison:  Treasurer, Jewish Voice for Peace Action, publicly resigned from Washington D.C. Board of Jewish National Fund

Mazin Qumsiyeh: author, founder and director of the Palestine Museum of Natural History (PMNH) and the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability (PIBS) at Bethlehem University

Iymen Chehade (moderator):  Professor of Middle Eastern History, Columbia College; founder, Uprising Theater

You must register to get the free film link and to participate in the Q&A discussion:  Tinyurl.com/VFHL-July2023

Watch the Trailers:  Tinyurl.com/VFHL-MyTreeTrailer

The July 2023 Online Film Salon is Co-Sponsored by:

SUPPORTER Organizations: Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Episcopal Peace Fellowship-Palestine Israel Network Churches for Middle East Peace Palestinian Christian Alliance for Peace   Quaker Palestine Israel Network Unitarian Universalists for Justice in the Middle East Indiana Center for Middle East Peace Disciples Palestine-Israel Network Virginia Coalition for Human Rights Mennonite Palestine Israel Network Friends of Sabeel North America Center for Jewish Nonviolence United Church of Christ Palestine Israel Network Northern New Jersey Jewish Voice for Peace  Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service Kairos Puget Sound Coalition Pax Christi USA