Aqabat-Jaber – Peace with no Return?

Aqabat-Jaber - Paix sans retour?

Eyal Sivan
France, Israel | 1995 | 61 min
Language : Arabic
Subtitle : English

Eyal Sivan goes back to the refugee camp of Aqabat-Jaber. While inquiring about the right of the Palestinians to return to the villages from which they were displaced in 1948, Sivan focuses on the main issue of the Arab-Israeli conflict. About 3000 people still live in the camp. Even the younger generations, who have never inhabited outside the camp, dream to return to the place where their roots have always been.

Eight years after his debut, Eyal Sivan goes back to the refugee camp of Aqabat-Jaber. While inquiring about the right of the Palestinians to return to the villages from which they were driven away in 1948, Sivan goes at the very heart of the issue of the Arab-Israeli conflict. About 3000 people still live in Aqabat-Jaber. Even the younger generations, who have never known any reality outside that of the camp, dream to return to the place where their roots have always been. Therefore the people live in a state of suspension, almost floating on a bubble of hope – a bubble facing the daily contradictions of the political situation of Israel that does not want to find a solution for the refugees. A state of pure suspended animation. The First Intifada is only a memory, even though some militants have declared it is “the most beautiful gift the Arab people have ever made to the Israeli ones.” A situation with no way out comes thus to be the point where the process of making a “documentary” becomes a truly critical intervention on the possibility of seeking alternative realities.

Atelier Eyal Sivan

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