rriving in Palestine. Early on, most had been Sephardic Jews who spoke Arabic and were familiar with Arab culture and mores. The new wave, however, consisted mainly of young Ashkenazim from Eastern Europe, who, according to Arab complaints and newspaper editorials, showed no understanding of the ways of the Arab inhabitants.<\/span><\/p>\nLoeterman said in an interview that he had searched more than 25 years for a book that digs into the roots of the present conflict. He found it five years ago in the work of Wall Street Journal reporter Amy Dockser-Marcus. She had covered Israel and the Middle East for the paper in the 1990s and reported on her research and experiences in the book \u201cJerusalem 1913: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the press notes for the film, Dockser-Marcus ruminates on the \u201cifs\u201d of human history, especially in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the [First World] war hadn\u2019t broken out, could things have gone in a different direction?\u201d she asks. \u201cWe\u2019ll never know. But I think it\u2019s important to remember that there was a moment when different groups shared a city, shared a land, and for a moment in time, shared [a] history.\u201d<\/p>\n
The film, four years in the making at a cost of $650,000, is studded with remarkable archival photos. In addition to the book,\u00a0 Loeterman drew on a corps of 12 Jewish, Palestinian and American scholars on the Middle East, now mainly teaching at U.S. and Israeli universities.<\/p>\n
One is Gershon Shafir, raised mainly in Tel Aviv and now professor of sociology at the University of California, San Diego. The author or editor of nine books on the Middle East, Shafir, who previously held a leadership position in the Peace Now movement, also served as president of the international Association for Israel Studies.<\/p>\n
While acknowledging the role of the specific 1913 events in exacerbating Arab-Jewish tensions, Shafir believes that longer-ranging trends made future conflicts inevitable. \u201cBoth the First and Second Aliyah [in the late 19th and early 20th centuries] were national movements, which in any case would have led to conflict,\u201d he said in a phone interview.<\/p>\n
Many American Jewish viewers \u2014 raised on images of bronzed pioneers wresting the land from the desert and a belief in the absolute righteousness of the Zionist cause \u2014 may well argue with the film\u2019s narrative and viewpoint. Questioned on that aspect, Loeterman said that the film\u2019s perspective is aligned with current academic scholarship in both Israel and the Diaspora.<\/p>\n
\u201cBen [Loeterman\u2019s] film is an exercise in empathy \u2026 something sorely lacking today,” Shafir said.
\n<\/span><\/p>\nPBS will air \u201c1913: Seeds of Conflict\u201d nationwide on\u00a0June 30<\/span><\/span>\u00a0from\u00a09-10 p.m.;\u00a0<\/span><\/span>times may vary for some stations.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n
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