TRAILERS

New Trailer for Doc 'H2: The Occupation Lab' About a Palestinian City

by Alex Billington
April 21, 2024
Source: YouTube

"As a Palestinian here, I don't exist." Film Movement has revealed an official trailer for a documentary film titled H2: The Occupation Lab, from filmmakers Idit Avrahami & Noam Sheizaf. It was originally made and finished in 2022 before the current Israel-Palestine war broke out. It premiered in 2022 at the Docaviv Film Festival in Israel, and will be relased in the US sometime this year. H2 is the name given to the eastern part of Hebron - the only Palestinian city with a Jewish settlement in it. Here, along a one-Kilometer road, lies the holy Tomb of the Patriarchs, where both Jews & Muslims believe their common father, Abraham, is buried. This is also where the massacre of 1929, known as "year zero" of the conflict, took place; where the Jewish settlement movement was born, and where the policy of ethnic separation was first implemented by the military. With rare archive footage as well as interviews with Hebron's military commanders and locals, H2: The Occupation Lab tells the story of a place that is both a microcosm of the entire conflict and a test site for the methods of control Israel is implementing throughout the West Bank. This is yet another honest, clear-eyed look at what's really going on in Palestine and how Israel's occupation is a more serious danger.

Official trailer (+ poster) for Idit Avrahami & Noam Sheizaf's doc H2: The Occupation Lab, on YouTube:

Along a one-kilometer road in the heart of the Palestinian city of Hebron lies H2 — a neighborhood with a Jewish settlement closely guarded and highly surveilled by the Israeli military. At the end of this stretch of road lies the Cave of the Patriarchs, a holy place for both Jewish and Muslim faiths. This is where both the Hebron Massacre of 1929 took place— effectively birthing the Jewish settlement movement — and where the policy of ethnic separation was first implemented by the Israeli military. Rich with history of Jews and Muslims and the only city in the State of Palestine with a Jewish settlement, H2 has acted as a microcosm for the entire conflict and as a laboratory for the methods of control implemented by the Israeli occupation of the West Bank for over 50 years. H2: The Occupation Lab is a clear-eyed case-study utilizing archival footage and interviews to tell the city's history and how it has fueled the entire Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

H2: The Occupation Lab is co-directed by filmmakers Idit Avrahami (director of the docs Actors Versus the Audience, "The Journalists", and Hébron, Palestine, la fabrique de l'occupation) & Noam Sheizaf (researcher on The Human Factor doc, "Murky Skies") making their first feature film together. Produced by Hilla Medalia and Paul Cadieux. This initially premiered at the 2022 Docaviv Documentary Film Festival in Israel, and it also played at the DMZ Documentary Film Festival in Korea and the Zurich Film Festival. Film Movement will release H2: The Occupation Lab in the US soon - no final date is set. Stay tuned for updates.

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