Existence is a divine gift and since the beginning of time, it had been intended that man should be the best of God’s creations and His vicegerent on earth; the vicegerent who is supposed to honor the existence of his fellow humans by taking help from the inner and appointed prophets, so that he could attain eternal salvation rather than being degraded. But has mankind really become the successor of Prophet Adam or is he the successor of Cain?Until and unless the evil word “war” has not been erased from the dictionary of people’s minds, and until the black demon of malice and greed has not stopped instigating man how would it be possible to talk of salvation? Of what benefit would be to talk of justice? Would talking of freedom, peace, and human rights go beyond utterance? For decades, the Zionists, under the pretext of modern man and the modern era, have been killing people in a land that has been one of the most defenseless countries of all ages. What has been the human achievement of seventy-five years of sinister and evil intentions of the usurper Zionist regime to make it stand before the world and brag about it? Nothing but destruction, genocide, and harm to humans, especially defenseless children and women!
Are the people who claim to defend human rights in the United Nations really happy that thousands of men and women, young and old, are massacred in a corner of this world in broad daylight, and have the media done anything positive other than providing news? Is this the ideal of human rights? Destruction of humans, especially women and children?! Innocent children who were supposed to wake up in the morning with the scent of olives and lemons and make the world a better place! Or women who have to rock their baby’s cradle with one hand and the world with the other!
Hany Abu-Assad’s 2005 drama Paradise Now centered on two Palestinian militants preparing for a suicide attack in Tel Aviv; it was the first Palestinian film nominated in the foreign-language Oscar category.
Palestine from the Viewpoint of Cinematographers
While Palestine is experiencing turbulent times and the smell of blood spilled in its alleys and lanes has spread throughout the world, the influencing tool called “Cinema” has always acted as a double-edged sword and continues to do so.
Whether this media is controlled by those in power and influential politicians or in the hands of committed artists and supporters of human rights, it does not diminish its effective influence on the minds of the people of the world.
Over the years, many movies have been produced about Palestine and Israel in different countries; each of which has approached the issue from different angles) and perspectives. The films generally include concepts such as criticism of the life of the Jewish community, the racist policies of the Israeli government, and sometimes false depictions of Arabs and Muslims. And as regards the suffering inflicted on women and children, the approach adopted in these films has also been different.
Keeping in view the common metaphors of the concept of “wall” and the metaphorical closeness of “woman and land” and a special approach adopted towards women and their rights the author intends to critically examine the context of the two films “Omar” and “Lemon Tree” in this note.
The Story of the Film “Omar”
Produced by “Hany Abu-Assad” in 2013, and shown for the first time at the Cannes Film Festival and the winner of many awards at the international level, “Omar” is centered on the life of a Palestinian baker named Omar, who for some reason clashes with Israeli soldiers every day. The film is a representation of the daily realities of the Palestinian people who strive for the freedom of their homeland. “Omar” has a social and national approach towards the issues of Palestine and involves political issues in a soft way.
The Story of the Film “Lemon Tree”
The “Lemon Tree” is an Israeli drama film. This film is one of the notable films that has a metaphorical view of women and directly refers to the efforts of a woman in the land of Palestine to protect her rights. Produced jointly by Israel, Germany, and France in 2008, and directed by Eran Riklis on the basis of the script written by Suha Arraf, this film was the winner of the best film award in the Panorama section of the Berlin Film Festival.
The film is the story of the resistance of a strong and self-made Palestinian woman named Salma who owns a lemon orchard in Palestine, which is her ancestral orchard. Everything is in order before the Israeli Defense Minister, Israel Navonb, moves to her neighborhood. Salma’s calm life becomes turbulent when the Israeli Secret Service views the neighboring lemon grove of Salma as a good place for the minister and his wife to be attacked. The minister orders that the grove should be destroyed and the entire story of the film from this moment on is about Salma defending her property rights from the usurper… Fighting tooth and nail for her indisputable right, facing many ups and downs, and enduring a lot of trouble, she succeeds in convincing the court to preserve the lemon orchard, but on the condition of removing half of the lemon trees!
The Metaphor of “Wall”
The use of “wall” as a metaphor is one of the recurring symbols in the two films of “Omar” and “Lemon Tree”.
Omar is the main character of the first film, who, by undergoing great difficulties, climbs the wall that separates the Israeli-occupied area from Palestine every day to see his fiancée Nadia and eventually gets injured and captured by the Israeli soldiers, and just when Nadia is about to get married to his friend, Omar becomes too weak to easily climb this wall.
We see the same symbol in the movie “Lemon Tree”. The Israeli defense minister, who walls the orchard of the Palestinian woman to protect his life, ends up depriving himself of the gift of the garden and its beauty with this wall.
The wall is always tied to the concept of separation; an obstacle that has no other function than alienating and distancing people from each other. An obstacle that is a big barrier to human understanding and the way to do away with it is to either climb it or destroy it!
A structure that can have no other purpose than destroying mutual understanding and coexistence. This symbol, both in the way it is shown in the two films and in its metaphorical meaning, evokes the existence of a barrier in the minds of these two nations.
The Image of Woman and Land
Films centered on Palestinian issues depict the suffering of defenseless women who have no choice but to submit in order to live their lives. Of course, there are few women who heroically fight for what is their right and in this film, the filmmaker has taken a step against the usual image of women. For example: (Palestinian Salma in “Lemon Tree”), and some examples of passive Israeli women are also shown who demonstrate passive character in decision-making situations, such as: (The wife of the Israeli Defense Minister in the movie Lemon Tree).
The Image of “Nadia” as Depicted in the Movie “Omar”
The film portrays the lives of defenseless women and children and their neglected rights within the context of pursuit and evasion of the characters and shows the depth of the horrifying situation in Palestine as well as the passivity of the female character in the story “Nadia” who is a young girl trying to study in a chaotic situation and is subject to an unwanted fate.In continuation of the past policies of cinema, in this film, too, the woman is depicted as a being of secondary importance deprived of the right to decision-making and the social position she deserves and whose most natural right is realized with difficulty in a patriarchal society. An anxious and hesitant woman who has no power to defend her right to make important choices in her life. And she has no choice but to compromise and just keeps on reviewing her sweet memories.
The Image of “Salma” as Depicted in the Movie “Lemon Tree”
The director of the film “Lemon Tree” uses the metaphor of “garden” and assumes it represents the land of Palestine. A widow who is under social pressures and ancestral traditions and while facing the prejudices of the people around her, she must be the protector of her orchard (the land).
The film evokes the ancient link between woman and land; a bond that sees a woman as the land and defending her orchard represents the survival of the land. (“Omar” must also protect Nadia from the treachery of insiders and outsiders, and this also represents protecting his land). A woman who, like the trees in her orchard, is of originality, but the wind does not always blow in her favor, and now she is forced to singlehandedly protect her property (her orchard) and her right (her existence).As a woman who is considered the inferior gender in the general view of her society and is considered the “weaker gender” in the eyes of the world, Salma has to stand tall against the oppression of a usurping group and fiercely defend her rights and her property. Who the winner and loser of this story are is a thought-provoking question.
At the end of the film, Salma manages to keep half of her property provided that a wall is built and half of the lemon trees are cut down. However, the loser of this game is the Israeli Defense Minister (her neighbor) who instead of seeing the lemon garden has to eye and view the ugly tall cement wall every day. Although he thinks that he is the winner, his sad look in the last scene of the movie has a different message. The wall that has supposedly protected him against threats has actually given Salma the hope of growing new lemon trees; trees with buds of hope.
