Palestine Is Still the Issue

British writer DH Lawrence once classified the passion for justice as the finest and noblest of all emotions. John Pilger's accurate and fair account of the conflict between Palestine and Israel is one of the finest examples of this passion. Pilger is now teaching at Cornell University and is the recipient of countless journalistic awards. A renowned veteran war reporter, he has covered some of the most war-torn regions of the world: Vietnam, Cambodia, East Timor, Afghanistan and many others. Only the most sullen opponents to his commitment to freedom and justice would deny him the status he enjoys as a first-class journalist.

"Palestine Is Still the Issue" is a must-see for Americans, who are kept in the dark by the media and political elites by the real nature of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is a conflict about land, which the documentary makes clear. The brutality of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) in dealing with the people it occupies--the Palestinians--is, indeed, uncomfortable to watch for people who wish to shrink from the truth, but the film is replete

with interviews with conscientious Israelis who oppose the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands--including a traumatic interview with an Israeli father of a victim of a suicide bomber.

Though Palestine Is Still the Issue doesn't bring any new facts to the table it's an awareness documentary that I believe everyone should watch.

Perhaps if more people knew of the travesty's taking place and had the mainstream medias lies about Israel explained to them then something could be done about it.

This is the third John Pilger film I've watched and I very much enjoy his work. If I were to criticize in anyway I'd point out that his documentaries are a tad on the short side.

If you are not aware of what is going on in Palestine and what has been for a very very long time then I suggest you give these 52 minutes your time. Another drawn out genocide, another cover up, another group of people demonised by the media while the truly evil ones are defended by our governments.

And yet again all the death, all the intolerance, all the acts of purely evil taking place are directly attributed to religion.

To quote Bill Maher "For mankind to survive, religion must die"

John Pilger is doing what he does best: alerting the viewer of oppression and tyranny that he/she otherwise would not have been aware of. He's extraordinarily adept at finding and reminding. That is finding the acts of state sanctioned tyranny and reminding the world that it is still going on. It doesn't matter if it's in Australia ("The Secret Country: The First Australians Fight Back"), East Timor ("Death of a Nation: The Timor Conspiracy"), Latin America ("The War on Democracy"), or Palestine ("Palestine is Still the Issue"). He boldly and humbly goes to different parts of the world to allow the downtrodden and marginalized to speak.

In "Palestine is Still the Issue" he shows how apartheid, occupation, and state sanctioned terrorism continues to occur in occupied Palestine under the guise of "defense" while the western world turns a blind eye. As long as Israel has the backing and the blessing of the U. S. they can and will continue to usurp Palestinian land and spill Palestinian blood. The silence from the western nations is deafening.

i know that many do not like that this movie is one-sided, but where you stand determines what you see. in discussing the israeli occupation of palestine and all the other elements of this conflict, actually tackling the occupation itself is the most important element of the conflict to include.

pilgier does it a gain by going straight to the heart of the matter and raising all the tough questions; in israel, these types of discussions are commonplace, but in the u.s., unfortunately, the most important parts of the story are taboo. discussion of the situation from which the violence grows are taboo. you can't discuss the israel/palestine conflict without tackling the reason for the season...the israeli occupation. as every story has a few dozen (at least) sides to it, if you're gonna pick one side to cover, pick the one that addresses the root causes of the subject matter. pilgier has done it again.

equal time would be something like this--ordinary palestnian life under military occupation--12 hrs/day, 7 days/week. but this is a good start.

"This film is about a nation of people: The Palestinians; forced off their land and later subjected to a military occupation by Israel, which is backed by a very powerful friend: The United States; the Palestinians have fought back; stateless and humiliated for so long, they've risen up against Israel's huge military machine, although they themselves have no army; no tanks, no american planes and gunships or missiles... This film is about the oldest human struggle: To Be Free."

John Pilger said it all, while my imagination was drawing pleasant, nostalgic parallels between his introduction and the introduction of Asterix's narrator: "In the year 50 B. C., all Gaul was under Roman occupation... All?.. Well, not exactly! There was that small village in Armorica surrounded by the 'X' and 'X' Roman legions, still resisting to the conqueror.." etc. Etc. Much more comfortable for one to reflect on how this fairy-tale village's case would've affected the future of colonialism for the world than to think of how this pukish murder-plan by the monsters of the zionist state (: nowadays having even reached the hubris of the nazi-inspired "final solution"!) will turn out for the Palestinian people...

I might be wrong, but I only have the wishful thought that the monster will eventually lose if humanity is to survive at all the inevitable collapse of the world's latest Empire (: the 'friend' of the monster). Amen.

This documentary is as precise, articulate and brief as Pilger's intro and definitely reaches its goals, to either raise consciousness and make you more interested in the Palestinian issue, or, (at-least and if-anything) make you understand a thing or two about it. When people have a matter-of-life-and-death truth to convey, their bravery for choosing to do so will most certainly guide them to the right path.