Route 181, Fragments of a Journey in Palestine-Israel, by Eyal Sivan and Michel Khleifi, (2003), produced and distributed by Momento Productions

The film is four and a half hours in length and was screened by the United Nations at the behest of the Committee on the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People on three successive days over the UN lunch hour, Tuesday, November 29th, Wednesday, November 30th, and Thursday, December 1st,, 2005.  The event took place in the Dag Hammarksjöld Library Auditorium at UN Headquarters in New York.

The film states at the outset that Palestinian filmmaker Michel Khleifi and Israeli filmmaker Eyal Sivan embarked on a cinematographic journey in 2002 through their country: “Palestine-Israel.”  For this trip they traced the route on a road map. They called it “Route 181,” after the General Assembly partition Resolution 181 adopted by the UN in 1947. The film begins “This resolution divided Palestine into two states, 56% of land for the Jewish minority and 43% for the Arab majority, the rest, an international zone. This theoretical line presented as a solution caused the first Arab-Israeli war which is yet to end. This journey along Route 181 followed this border that has never existed.”

The filmmakers evidently perceive the best solution to the conflict to be a one-state solution – a euphemism to an end to the Jewish state.  Through their interviews with Israelis and Palestinians they aim to make the case that racism in Israeli society is the major roadblock to such a solution. 

Here are a few excerpts from the film.  Repeated themes include:  the Jews were not indigenous to the region;  Jews lived well in Arab states, and could have remained there;  the driving force for the Jew is money.  The overarching message of the film is that Israelis are racists  --  Zionism is racism by any other name. 


Filmmaker (F): “Wasn’t it easier with Arabs from Gaza?”
Property developer (PD1): “Yes, but you can’t count on them.”
F: “Where were you born?”  
PD1: “Kurdistan” 
F: “And you?”
PD2: “Morroco.  Marakesh”
F: “were you born there?”
PD1: “Yes” 
F: Was it good back then?
PD1: Yes it was…I mean for Jews it was good 
PD2: it still is. 
PD1: We always say a good Arab is a dead Arab. Dead he’s ok. Alive forget it.
F: DO you know that this land belongs to refugees in Gaza?
PD1: Forget that. What was here before? We had land in Kurdistan too. Can I get it back? They started a war. Invaded and lost. End of story. How many times? 1,2,3,4 times? If they were decent they would have stayed. But they are not decent. They are animals, not human.
F: That’s harsh. A man calling other human beings animals?
PD1: It’s the truth, what can you do? 


F: Is there racism?
Son of an elderly Israeli Arab woman (WS): Every single day. I have no Jewish friends anymore. Isn’t that racism? There is not one Arab home here. Where are our Jewish friends? They hurt us without realizing. Because basically they don’t treat us like human beings…Palestinians lived simply, with bread and olives. With a good and pure heart. They helped everyone. That’s how Arabs lived. All Jews seem to care about is work and money.
His mother-Israeli Arab woman: The State takes the bread from our mouths and gives it to the Jews. That’s not life. When I lived with them, I did them no harm; but they harm me. I was here when Jews and Arabs lived together. I treated my neighbors well…Now they do me harm…
WS: …Why are they building this wall to separate them[selves] from Palestinians? Can’t they live among Palestinians? They lived among Arabs for years in various countries. The problem isn’t between Jews and Arabs, but between occupiers and occupied. That’s the problem. They say: “Arabs hate us and want to throw us into the sea!” but that hasn’t happened in Yemen or Iraq. Others threw them out, not us. Arabs haven’t done that. On the contrary.


F: Any Arabs living nearby?
Israeli woman shopkeeper (S): There are two families. They’re not from here. They’re squatters…
F: Do you have contact with them?
S: Me? With them? [laughs] Oh, I just love them so!...We should get rid of them. Send them packing! Pay them if necessary, but rid this land of that cancer. They all have to go. …they’re..Arabs. If you’re weak, you’re done for…
F: So, they’ll never be peace?
S: never. Not as long as we’re here.


F: Did you see people leave in 1948?
Elderly Museum Tour Guide (TG): yes.
F: Did all Arabs take up arms against you?
TG: Only the activists. Not everybody. Most Arabs want to live peacefully farming their land. The activists fought. There used to be 1000 dunams here..it’s all gone now, can’t make a living from grapes. We don’t work for sentiment, we work for money.


Elderly Kibbutz tour guide: [the old man foams at the mouth]: Listen to me! The Arab neighbors need to understand that in the war against Israel they will not taste victory. Okay? They will not win. It will only lead to Arab extermination. Much worse than any previous ones. Then there’ll be peace.


Israeli man:  South Africa is the settlers’ model. A white minority dominates a black majority. Here it’s the arabs who have no rights. They’ll be well treated as long as they don’t rise up. They’ll have water and we won’t beat them. But no civic rights. And that’s the moderates’ view!  The fence is the ultimate absurdity! Take the fence—the settlements there were, the more we built. As they got more settled, the fence goes up. From a little fence to a big one, then a barbed, then double, then electronic and so on. The fence is the symbol. The fence is Zionism.


F: Are you Myriam’s neighbor?
Israeli neighbor (IN) of Arab woman (Myriam): Yes.
F: Since when?
IN: Myriam has been here 5 years. Me, 13.
F: Do you get along well?
IN [shaking her head] we have a chat every day. We never sit at a table together, but we get along.
F: Not ever?
IN: no. we’re Jewish, they’re not.
F: Is it forbidden to drink with them?
IN [shaking her head] We’re not of the same religion.
F: Were you born here?
IN: No, I was born in Iraq. I emigrated to Israel with my parents…There used to be only Jews in this street. People are selling up. It’s always Arabs that buy. The Jews move elsewhere, leave town. No one wants to live in a mixed district anymore. 


An Arab man in Lod, Israel: In 1948 I was 19. They shot everyone in the mosque. They locked them in one room and shot them all though the windows. Where could they run to?
F: Didn’t they fight back?
AF: They didn’t even have food, let alone arms. They were locked in a mosque! They were packed in. Just ordinary folk. They had no guns…


F: Is it morally right for someone born in New York or Paris to be on the land of another person who can’t be there.
Israeli Jewish man with American accent: I wouldn’t say that. This land doesn’t belong to another person but to me. I’m Jewish and the Jewish people have an eternal link with Israel.


Palestinian woman: …Suicide bombers don’t kill themselves for fun. I, an old woman, would do it if I could. I’d put on a belt and boom! Who can accept their son carrying out a suicide bombing? …What can we do? We’re poor people, with no tanks or planes. They have tanks, guns, missiles, planes, they bombard us from land, sea and sky. And us? Frustrated and humiliated sons who blow themselves up.
Palestinian man:  …The demolitions are collective punishment…I fight for human rights. International law, the 4th Geneva Convention and the United Nations all condemn the occupation and legitimize the fight against the occupation…