Censored Voices

"Censored Voices' is a remarkable documentary, even after the wraps came off them 67 years after the Six Day War. It is even more remarkable: it is a record of voices of young citizen soldiers who went to fight for the survival of Israel on 6 June and in lightning speed in six days vanquished the combined armies of Egypt, Jordan and Syria. Out of this death and wanton destruction of a dazzlingly victory, the Zionist state was conqueror of the Sinai, Golan Heights, the Palestinian territory on the West Bank, Gaza and east or Arab Jerusalem. And yet, listening to the voices of the kibbutzniks who fought bravely for Israel emerges a sense of betrayal and muted rage. Suckled on the heroic breast of Israel victory in 1948 and Suez in 1956, these young men and women were itching to make their mark on history. So they did, but the fruits of victory proved bitter sweet. Amos Oz is the most recognizable name in the Greek chorus of kibbutzniks who bear witness. We see them as smiling, robust youth then and aging men with sagging cheeks and jowls as they enter their eight decade of life. The story they tell has an immediacy today as it was fresh almost seven decades ago. Brought up on the weakness of European Jews who went like lambs to the slaughter in Europe during the Holocaust, they were eyewitnesses if not participants in ethnic cleansing of Arab villages, of children and women and old men and young men who didn't fight. They saw creation of camps, sending people into exile, humiliation in the same light they saw the treatment of fellow Jews in Europe. The voices are evoke the darkest moments of humanity that transcend time and should make us uncomfortable. And that seems to be the tragedy of those days for them. Western military who fought or are still fighting in Afghanistan, Iraq or Syria, as well in other hot spots in the world, can without too much trouble identify with the angst of these censored voices. The liberation of Jerusalem brought much joy and religious significance for the Wailing Wall or Kotal was again in Judaism's hands. But for a mother who lost her son in the Sinai, she wailed with the cry of a Greek heroine that it was to save the Fatherland not extol in a Wall and for that her loss wasn't worth the finger nail of her son. Soldiers who went in the Palestinian lands found no religious stirring in visiting the tombs or the Patriarchs or that of Rachel. As the spool of the tape recorder spun to its end, two brothers pronounced a dire judgment of their censored voice. They remind us of a refrain from Ha Tikvah, the national anthem of Israel--To be a free people in our land,the land of Zion and Jerusalem. Despite the fulgurant victory, so celebrated, it ushered in hatred by those under Israel's colonial rule in the West Bank; it ushered in unending war and militarization and a consuming religiousness sapping the bases of a democratic state, and fatefully Israelis are not a free people.

Israel's 1967 war against three invading Arab armies was hailed a triumph as they fought to victory in spite of seeming like David battling Goliath. The people and media celebrated the success, which was a reaffirmation of Zionism as Jerusalem was reclaimed as an entire Israeli city.

Yet in the kibbutz were young men returned from fighting in the war who were not triumphant, who did not feel that Zionism was justified in its actions and that some of the actions by Israel during the 6-day war offended Judaism. They gathered to speak about their experiences and its effect upon them. Their conversations were recorded. Then the conversations were suppressed by the Israeli army. Only 30% of their interviews were released for publication until now.

Mor Loushy has brought the young men, now old men, to listen again to their comments and conversations, revealed in their entirety to others for the first time. These are spliced with footage of the war and with film of the men listening to their young selves. At the end each man delivers his verdict on the legacy of the 6-day war for Israel. It is not positive.

I wondered how a documentary built around recorded interviews would work as a cinematic affair. The use of original footage, of which there is plenty, helps support the voices we hear from the past. Each young man entered the war believing it a just and right battle to preserve Israel but each was left disturbed in its aftermath. It is such an interesting contrast to see the men now as they are listening to their thoughts then.

Ultimately the film's verdict as it is delivered from these old men is dispiriting and sad. Well worth seeing to hear Israeli views as they are without propaganda and defensiveness. The comments of some of the men then echo prophetically with events since. One has to admire the perspicacity of those young men as they rued their country's actions in 1967.

The Israeli writer Amos Oz, deceased at the end of 2018, was praised as one of his country's and the world's most important contemporary writers. His relationship with cinema is illustrated by quite a significant number of references on IMDB, where he appears as the author of his books brought to screen, but especially as himself in over 20 documentary films. Amos Oz was a talented and charming interlocutor, who did not hesitate to express eloquently his sharp political opinions and life choices. 'Censored Voices' by documentarist Mor Loushy, made in 2015, is a special moment in this film career because Amos Oz plays here the role of a witness of the Six Days War, one of the crucial moments in the history of Israel and of its relations with its neighbors in the complex ambience of Middle East.

The story of the film began in 1967. Israel was victorious in a war in which the state's existence had been threatened by Arab armies. In the days, months, a few years after the war, Israel lived in the euphoria of this victory. What had just happened was another miracle in the lines of those who assured the survival of the Jewish people and the rebirth of the Jewish state. Israel had been forced to fight a war of survival, a just war, and had won it. Everything seemed possible, including that this war was the last one Israel had to fight, the decisive one, as the parents of that time promised to their children. Amos Oz, a freshly demobilized soldier, along with a friend, both kibbutz residents, traveled from kibbutz to kibbutz with a tape recorder to record the testimonies of the soldiers who had just returned from the front. The testimonies that were gathered, or at least those selected for inclusion in this film, were completely different than the ones who described heroic deeds and the euphoria of victory. They are the testimonies of young soldiers traumatized by war, who had lived the fearful days of waiting and the shock of the encounter with the violence of war, which had been confronted with the deaths of their comrades and with the need to kill the enemies in war, who had been exposed to acts unfit to the moral prestige of the Israeli army. They had also been direct witnesses to the beginning of the occupation of the territories - the Sinai peninsula (in the meantime returned to Egypt), the West Bank, and the Golan Heights. Even the liberation of Jerusalem does not appear so glorious in their testimonies as in the official accounts, not to mention the contact with the civilian population, some of which will add to the ranks of the refugees. Fragments of these recordings, made between the 10th and the 20th day after the war, released from the censorship restrictions 48 years after the events, are the documentary basis of the film.

Director Mor Loushy is filming those who spoke nearly half a century ago (including Amos Oz) while they listen for the first time to their voice recordings. Almost a lifetime passed over each of them. They do not talk much, they listen quietly, their eyes say more than words when they are confronted with their own young voices, with their accounts immediately after the events. What is clear is that none of them is surprised, none of them seems to have forgotten. The experience of the war has remained with them for all their lives. The rest of the film, on the contrary, features filmed images - some of them are heroic images describing the post-war euphoria, some others are snapshots of filmed journals and archives illustrating and completing the story. The weak part of the film seemed to me to be the placement of the testimonies in the context. For the Israeli spectator familiar with the events, familiar with the historical consequences of the Six-Day War, things are clearer. This is not the case with the less informed spectators. It's not the definitive film about the Six-Day War. Explanations of the historical background are too succinct. The internal perspective is also lacking. In the movie hear the testimonies of 10-15 people and I have no reason to contest the authenticity of their accounts. Every year, however, around the anniversary of the war we see and hear in Israel dozens and hundreds of other testimonies, and many of these are radically different accounts. There is a huge amount of written material and there have been and there will be many debates in the Israeli society about this war, including about the aspects described in the film. Those who have their testimonies recorded in this film, as Amos Oz says at the end, have told their truth. But this is one facet of a more complicated truth, of a much more complex situation. 'Censored Voices' is an exciting and necessary film, part of a debate that has not begun with it, and will not end with it.

Soldiers were tape recorded 1-2 weeks after the 1967 war in Israel ended. These voices were originally censored. We are fortunate that the perspectives of these soldiers were not lost forever. Now they are preserved for the historical record. It was amazing to see some of the soldiers listening to their own voices, all these years later, with tears in their eyes.

War is hell. Anyone who thinks it delivers some kind of heroic glory is fooling themselves. This film contributes to the documentation of reality. It reminded me of the film Winter Soldier, in which Vietnam vets speak about their experiences.

CENSORED VOICES: THE SIX DAY WAR is an exploration of the infamous war between Israel on one side and the combined forces of Jordan, Lebanon, and Egypt on the other. It's told entirely through the voices and experiences of young Israeli soldiers who recount their experiences on the battlefield and their disillusionment with war.

Bizarrely, their dissenting voices were initially censored by military authorities, only to be recounted in the present day. They're engaging as are all war stories told from the first person, although not quite as shocking as I was expecting; we all know that war is a violent and brutal act in which innocent people die and ordinary people do terrible things. Unfortunately, it's par for the course.

I had virtually no knowledge of the conflict before this documentary so it was very informative in that respect, but I ended up wanting more. More explanation of the theatre of battle, how the war started, and the subsequent consequences. Limiting the narration to that of the soldiers themselves limits the scope of the documentary itself. The contemporary footage is excellent, but bringing the soldiers back as old men to have them sitting silently and listening to the tapes is a bit of an odd choice, at least to me.