Abstract

Amidst the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, there is a need to concentrate on efforts between local citizens to find a hopeful common ground through dialogue, peace-building, and nonviolent activism. The five non-fiction films examined in this thesis attempt to add nuance to our understanding of the contested region through resisting a polarized political rhetoric that has defined much mainstream coverage of the violence and ethnic struggle. Cultural scholars, through examining Israeli and Palestinian cinema as separate and oppositional entities, further fail to dissolve barriers that contribute to intensified misconceptions of the Other. Therefore, this investigation will align with the aims of “post-Zionism,” an ideology that attempts to move beyond the original tenets of Zionism, embrace the multicultural makeup of Israel-Palestine, and address under-seen, marginalized perspectives of the country’s history. The five post-Zionist documentaries analyzed, made during a period of intensified conflict and stalled peace talks in the early twenty-first century, examine a formidable array of viewpoints while questioning and deconstructing Israeli myths.