Advocate is a documentary about Lea Tsemel, an Israeli human-rights lawyer, and follows her as she defends Palestinian political prisoners, one a 13 year old and the other a young married woman. The film also explores Tsemel's career as a young university student and then as a lawyer. Tsemel is introduced as a very controversial person in Israel but the film doesn't give much information about why people find her controversial aside from the fact she defends Palestinian political prisoners. The film doesn't contain very much information about the legal system in Israel or the history of the Occupation. It's revealed that Tsemel, as a volunteer with the Israeli army, was one of the first Israelis to reach the Western Wall during the 1967 War. The significance of this isn't explained to the audience: if you don't know that Jordan annexed East Jerusalem and the West Bank after the 1948 War and wouldn't allow Jews to enter East Jerusalem to pray at the Western Wall, the holiest site in Judaism, you won't understand the impact of this on Tsemel and the other Israelis to be the first to reach the Wall. Tsemel relates that she condemned the Occupation immediately after the 1967 War, but Tsemel is never asked in the film how she felt about the Palestinians' lives under Jordan rule when Jordan oppressed Palestinian nationalism (just to note that Tsemel wonders in one scene why some houses near the Wall were later torn down by Israel. It's not mentioned that Jordan desecrated many Jewish and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem during their 19 year long reign. Some were turned into pens for animals) . The film would have been more persuasive if it included more context and background about the legal situation in the West Bank and Jerusalem. It doesn't provide details about other cases in the Israeli system aside from Tsemel's: I would have liked to know how many cases per year in the Israeli jural system involve Palestinian political prisoners, how many of these cases involve violent attacks, and how other lawyers who defend these cases regard Tsemel. The film didn't include the viewpoint of anyone in the Israel legal system aside from Tsemel, such as the judges or other lawyers in her cases.
Tsemel states early in the documentary that Palestinians who carry out "armed resistance" are "freedom fighters". Advocate doesn't raise any questions about "resisting the occupation" by stabbing innocent people aside from an brief one by a news cameraman who cries out during Tsemel's TV interview if "resisting the occupation" justifies murdering innocent people. No viewpoints were given about people who have been affected by the two people Tsemel was defending- we were told the boy said "sorry" to the boy who was stabbed but we didn't hear from the victim's family. In one scene Tsemel proclaims in an aside about a legal precedent of Israeli settlers attacking Palestinians, but this is never explored.
Advocate is very one sided documentary which sets out from the start to show the Occupation is oppressive. Ultimately it shows that the Israeli system and Israeli society includes people like Tsemel who are fighting for change and fighting for the human rights of those who attack it. The film would be more persuasive it included challenging Tsemel's viewpoint and asking the question posed by the news cameraman.
