In Jewish mysticism, no event occurs by chance. The thread of people’s lives, drawn by the Three Fates or the human sketch of the Great Architect of the Universe, everything seems pre-written. Does this imply that Elie Chouraqui’s film “Ô Jerusalem” arrives at the right moment for a State of Israel questioning itself? In the midst of a scandal involving its President, doubtful and therefore anxious about the legendary excellence of its army, the Hebrew people will likely find solace in this production.
Presented Monday night in Nice at a preview by the France-Israel Association led by Rudy Salles, the CRIF of Martine Ouaknine, and B’nai B’rith, “Ô Jerusalem” recounts those few weeks between 1947 and 1948 that decided the creation of the Hebrew State while also igniting the tragic conflict with the Palestinians.
The script describes the slow but inexorable human rift between two New York friends, a Jew and a Palestinian Arab, just after World War II. The historic UN vote in November 1947 on the creation of Israel, the first bloody clashes that followed, all set against the background of British ambiguities widely denounced by the director, seem to seal their destinies as enemies. One land: too much for two peoples who claim it as their own due to millennia of identity. Only one common point now remains between the two: their survival becomes their ordinary life. The most significant episodes of 1948 punctuate the degradation of this friendship: the rivalries between the Irgun, the clandestine Jewish movement responsible for the massacre of Palestinians at Deir Yassin, and the Haganah, the root of the future IDF, the operations to take control of the road leading to Jerusalem, David Ben Gurion’s obsession with making the resupply of the eternal city a strong symbol of the new state.
While it aims to be a historical narrative, the film doesn’t escape the symbolic demands of the director. At the risk of oversimplification. One might question, in this regard, the almost anachronistic reintroduction of the oil issue at the heart of pressure tactics that, according to Arab leaders of the time, were to persuade Americans to support the Palestinian cause. Arab leaders already divided to the point of supporting their “brothers” only in words. Similarly, the commendable persistence in conveying a message of peace leads Chouraqui to depict an undoubtedly excessive fraternization between Jewish and Arab fighters at the time of the first ceasefire in 1948. The symbolism of the Jewish wedding in the presence of the rediscovered Palestinian friend certainly corresponds to the director’s expressed desire to focus, in this feature film, on positive aspects, to soothe minds, and to do everything to avoid importing the Israeli-Arab conflict to Europe. However, it borders on denying a form of reality conveyed daily by images and is capable of diverting the film from the audience for whom Chouraqui intended it.
The emotional framework is moving, and the narrative ultimately manages to show that human intelligence of the heart can sometimes find the necessary resources to resist hatred and fanaticism. As explained by CRIF president Martine Ouaknine, the profits from this screening will be used to finance the education of a young Israeli student at the “Mediterranean” branch of Science-Po. The attempts to blend Arabic and Hebrew scripts in the credits demonstrate the challenge but also the limitations of the effort. They do not fuse. They overlay. Much like this Israeli student who is about to mingle with his Arab colleagues in this academic cycle, it will primarily be in recognizing the existence of the Other that a genuine encounter can occur.
“Ô Jerusalem,” a film by Elie Chouraqui, in theaters starting Wednesday, October 18.
