Farha and Tantura: How the Documentaries Illustrated the Palestinian Nakba and Nullified the Israeli Narrative

For nearly seven decades, “Israel” has been publishing its own narrative about the Nakba and its occupation of Palestine and using one of the most important ways to rewrite history, which is the most widespread art of cinema.

Finally, Arab movies managed to escape from the global blackout due to the spread of online platforms, as well as to produce cinematic works good enough to be shown in international festivals.

Among those works: The Jordanian movie Farha, which tells the story of a Palestinian girl who witnessed the killing of an entire family by Israeli soldiers in the Nakba of the Palestinian people in 1948, which angered “Israel” because it presents the point of view that Jews have hidden from the world for decades.

However, after the movie started showing on Netflix, at an appropriate time, December 1, which coincided with chanting in the name of Palestine and raising its flags on the stands of the 2022 Qatar World Cup, followers complained that the platform had deleted the movie from its list, while others said that not all subscribers of the platform can access and view it and that the matter requires the use of VPN apps.

Meanwhile, it was recently announced that another movie called Tantura won the Film Festival in New York City was shown earlier this year, revealing the falsehood of the Israeli narrative, which for many years denied committing genocide and systematic ethnic cleansing against hundreds of Palestinians from the village of Tantura in 1948, which paved the way for the establishment of the so-called “Israel” on the land of Palestine.

It is noteworthy that in 1948, which is called the year of the Nakba, more than 750,000 Palestinians were displaced and expelled during the war, and “Israel” still refuses to recognize the right of return that they demand after their numbers rose to millions scattered worldwide.

 

True Story

The Israeli Occupation and its lobbies in the United States launched a frenzied campaign of incitement against the movie Farah, which chronicles the events of the Nakba in 1948 and the crimes of the Occupation and is shown on Netflix, claiming that it shows the Occupation soldiers as killers.

Farha revolves around the story of a 14-year-old girl whose village is subjected to a brutal attack by the Israeli Occupation army in 1948, and she watches from her hiding place the execution of her family and relatives in cold blood, which changes her life and thoughts, and pushes her to change the future she dreamed of.

In addition, the film crew complained about a systematic Israeli attack against the film and its makers by Israeli government officials and the Israeli media, as well as by Israeli individuals on social media and other platforms.

“We, the film team, condemn all accusations of defaming the film, and we condemn the campaign organized against it,” Darine Salam, the movie’s director and author, and producers Dima Razer and Ayah Jardaneh, said in a statement.

They added: “We condemn all accusations of defaming the movie, the campaign organized against the movie on IMDb.com to significantly reduce its rating, attempts to stop showing it at the Saraya Theater and threats to cancel the show, and cancel subscription to Netflix if it shows the movie.”

The statement of the filmmakers and the campaign referred to within it comes about two weeks before the announcement of the preliminary list of films selected to compete for the awards of the 95th session of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The statement stressed that the timing of the campaign is not a mere coincidence, which came at the height of the publicity campaign for the movie Farha, which Jordan nominated to compete for the Oscar as the best international film, with the aim of preventing the film from being seen globally.

Over the past few months, the movie has participated in a number of international film festivals, including the Toronto Film Festival, the Palm Springs Festival, and the Red Sea Film Festival.

It also won Arab and Western awards, such as the Jury Prize for Best Feature Film at Malmo Arab Film Festival and the Best Youth Feature Film Award at the 15th Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA).

It is noteworthy that as soon as the movie was shown on Netflix and in theaters, a wave of anger began in “Israel,” as Minister of Culture Yehiel Trooper said, “Farha depicts lies and slander, and showing it in an Israeli theater is a disgrace.”

Perhaps the most prominent person who also participated in the Israeli campaign against the movie was the racist member of Knesset, Itamar Ben Gvir, leader of the Jewish Power, and former Israeli Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman.

On its part, Netflix bowed to Israeli pressure and restricted viewing of the movie in Palestine, other European countries, and several Arab countries.

In addition, the Israeli administration orchestrated an electronic vote to lower the movie’s rating online, and a group of unverified accounts registered negative reviews of Farha on IMDb in an organized campaign, as reported by The Middle East Eye website on December 2, 2022.

After the Israeli blame, the movie’s ratings were greatly affected; in early December, it dropped from 7.2 to 5.8 in a matter of hours.

Many of the negative reviews seem to have come from the same source and contain similar comments, such as calling the movie one-sided or a big lie.

On the other hand, another rating counter-campaign against the Israeli campaign began, and Palestinian activists published a method that raised the movie’s rating on IMDb to 8.5 out of 10, which is considered a high rating globally.

They also called for pressing the movie’s like button on Netflix and republishing it through the sites that broadcast it to contribute to promoting the true story that the movie presents.

 

Supportive Voices

In the same context, voices in support of Farha rose on social media, as activists advocating for the Palestinian cause indicated that there was nothing in the movie that did not happen in reality.

Journalist and researcher Robert Carter tweeted, “The Israeli outrage over Netflix film Farha, on the Palestinian Nakba is a total joke. Netflix has platformed a ton of pro-Israel propaganda clap trap over the years. Along comes one Palestinian film and they crumble like snowflakes.”

CJ Werleman tweeted, “Newly released Netflix movie Farha depicts the true story of the Nakba, when 800,000 Palestinians were ethnically cleansed by Israel in 1948. This is how the criminal Zionist state was founded.”

The American of Palestinian origin, Sarah Thamer, correspondent for MPR news, invited to watch the movie Farha, noting that Israeli militias violently expelled Palestinians from their homes in 1948, and adding: “This story is just one of many, including my family’s story of displacement.”

In turn, the multimedia journalist, Sharmeen Ziauddin, revealed that she was deeply affected after watching the movie Farha, which is based on a true story, noting that many are trying to stop showing the movie and harm its reputation and credibility, and commenting: “The movie exists, we exist, and we will not remain silent.”

On his part, the British artist, Roger Waters, expressed his support for the movie, which reveals the crimes of the Occupation since the Nakba, indicating his influence on the movie, and stressing the authenticity of the events contained in it and the continuation of the Occupation in committing its crimes against the Palestinians.

As James J. Zogby, Founder of the Arab American Institute (AAIUSA) tweeted, “It is shameful that Israel works so hard to silence Farha and prevent it from being shown,” adding: “When I spent some time in the Palestinian refugee camps in 1971, I heard many stories like this.”

In turn, the writer Shareefa Energy tweeted, “Farha is the true story of a Palestinian girl who survived the Nakba in 1948, which led to the displacement of more than 800,000 Palestinians, the killing of 15,000 people, and the ethnic cleansing of 418 villages, when Europeans came to Palestine to claim Israel.”

On her part, journalist Nisreen al-Khatib indicated in a statement to Al-Estiklal that “Farha has offered a practical translation of what the Israeli government has been relentlessly trying to manipulate: the truth behind their existence.”

“Netflix is an international platform, and having the movie viewed on it means more international audiences will watch the truth in their homes,” she added.

As for Netflix restricting the screening of Farha in several countries, Ms. al-Khatib explained that “there are reports and complaints about Netflix banning the movie in certain regions, such as in Germany, but I learned that these news are not accurate, since some people in those regions had an easy access to the movie on Netflix.”

“But the fact that some people had to change their devices’ VPN codes or language to be able to watch it, makes me think of the possibility that Netflix might have been under pressure from authorities in certain regions, given that the Zionist lobbies made it clear that they wish Farha would be banned and they’re actually working on that. If the news about the ban is true, it’d be a historic disgrace,” Ms. al-Khatib said.

Regarding the film’s success, Ms. al-Khatib said that “I really believe the movie will make a remarkable shift for foreigners who are geographically far from the occupied land of Palestine in understanding of the historical events behind the Palestinian struggle. And I am certain it will raise questions in their mind about the Israeli brutality and illegal occupation.”

Ms. al-Khatib concluded that “the Israeli smear campaigns against the movie and its producers, and the attempts to ban it internationally, are expected. The movie producers knew this. I bet Netflix also knew it. But no one cared, and they went on until it became a reality.”

She added that “I am actually happy to see that the international awareness of the Palestinian cause and the Israeli atrocities is growing and expanding. Everyone wants to hear the Palestinians’ side of the story in spite of the Israeli attempts in whitewashing their apartheid system.”

 

Tantura Massacre

It is worth noting that Farha is not the first movie to raise controversy about Israeli killings during the Nakba or the 1948 war.

The Israeli director, Alon Schwartz, had previously faced violent reactions against the backdrop of his documentary movie, which was shown earlier this year under the name Tantura, which depicted the supposed massacre of Palestinians in the coastal village of Tantura, in the north of the occupied territories.

The movie showed testimony of former members of the Israeli army who remember the slaughter of hundreds of Palestinians from the village of Tantura and dumping their bodies in mass graves to pave the way for the kibbutz, which refutes the Israeli narrative that for many years denied committing massacres.

According to what was reported by Haaretz newspaper on January 20, 2022, the former Israeli soldiers said that the dead in the massacre were hundreds, and they were all executed by firing squad, amid estimates that the number of victims reached about 200 Palestinian civilians.

One of the soldiers said that he killed between 15 and 20 people after they were prisoners of war. It was revealed that an officer in those gangs killed several others with his own pistol.

However, the most brutal in those accounts was what was revealed by another soldier, when he said that a large number of Palestinian civilians were placed in tin barrels and fired at from a machine gun, to watch later the blood flowing from the holes made by the bullets, in a bloody scene that expresses the extent of the brutality characteristic of the Israeli Occupation.

Another soldier revealed in one of the most tragic testimonies, saying: “I used to kill detainees and not send them to prison. I killed many Arabs outside the battlefield with a machine gun containing 250 rounds…I cannot count the number of dead.”

The Tantura massacre was committed by the Zionist Alexandroni brigade on May 22, 1948, and was a continuation of the main Israeli goal, represented in the process of ethnic cleansing of the country by force of arms and intimidation of the population, in preparation for the displacement of the largest number of Palestinian citizens.

Nowadays, the movie Tantura is shown in theaters in the United States and is receiving positive reviews from major American newspapers, especially the New York Times and Los Angeles Times, among others.

In the same context, the American website, The Intercept, quoted in an article on November 25, 2022, the director Schwartz as saying that “the movie tells the story of Israel, which ignores the historical basis on which it was built.”

“We have robbed the Palestinians of their history. It did not stop at us committing ethnic cleansing against them. We took them out and did not allow them to return; we also took away the true story from them, we took away from them the right to remember, and that in itself is terrible,” Schwartz admitted.

According to the article, the movie is the result of a work that lasted for more than two years of research and interviews with dozens of these men and women, who are now nearly ninety years old, about events that most of them had never talked about, and many of them had previously denied.

According to observers, the movie is considered a document of very important legal value to hold the Israeli authorities accountable and prosecute since 1948, regarding their commission of many crimes that amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.

In turn, Alice Speri, a journalist at The Intercept, indicated that “Israel is so afraid of its history that it passed a law in 2011 punishing anyone who commemorates its founding as a day of mourning, not a celebration.”

The Nakba law, the word Palestinians have always used to refer to the establishment of the so-called “Israel” and their displacement, embodies the existential anguish of a country that has never recognized its past, even as it continues to grapple with its repercussions.