A visual revolution is born. It’s called Occupation 101, a film that will grab you by the eyebrows and keep your eyes wide open until the final credits roll. There is no guarantee that you will not cry, sob or pound the ground with your feet or the chair with your fists. Occupation 101 is the one documentary film you don’t want to miss.
You also don’t want your non-Muslim, non-Arab friends to miss it, especially those who could never grasp the complexity of the Palestinian tragedy despite your persistent efforts. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then Occupation 101 is worth a thousand books. 
The film opens with a dramatic montage of black and white stock footage of civil unrest in Ireland, Algeria, India, the American south, South Africa and then the Holy Land, accompanied by a chorus of voices denouncing oppression, from Malcolm X to Nelson Mandela. "It is useless and futile for us to continue talking peace and non-violence against a government whose only reply is savage attacks against an un-armed civilian people," Mandela says. By choosing these particular words from a man known for non-violence, the filmmakers set the record that this film is not about turning the other cheek. It then juxtaposes overwhelming force with civil disobedience. Writing on the wall reads, "We shall avenge our dead." The sequence ends with the title of the film followed with the subtitle, "Voices of the silenced majority" slammed into the screen with a burst of gunfire. The filmmakers, Abdallah and Sufyan Omeish, did not leave any doubt as to how they felt about occupation and resistance.
Occupation 101 begins in Gaza, the largest prison camp on earth. The humanitarian crisis is epic: House demolitions, military incursions, a destitute civilian population living in abject poverty and an international community that doesn’t care. A child psychologist who studied 1,000 Gazan children concluded that most have lost the will to live. Media reports are shut out. Few western journalists ever venture into the large prison. The filmmakers make a poignant point about Israel’s claim to have completely withdrawn from the Strip. With air, land and sea in the hands of the occupier, Gaza resembles a prison where inmates occupy most of the space yet the keys of the facility are in the hands of the jailers. The same applies to the West Bank, which has been walled off and peppered with an amalgam of Bantustans cut off from each other and surrounded by Jewish settlements and military checkpoints.
begins in Gaza, the largest prison camp on earth. The humanitarian crisis is epic: House demolitions, military incursions, a destitute civilian population living in abject poverty and an international community that doesn’t care. A child psychologist who studied 1,000 Gazan children concluded that most have lost the will to live. Media reports are shut out. Few western journalists ever venture into the large prison. The filmmakers make a poignant point about Israel’s claim to have completely withdrawn from the Strip. With air, land and sea in the hands of the occupier, Gaza resembles a prison where inmates occupy most of the space yet the keys of the facility are in the hands of the jailers. The same applies to the West Bank, which has been walled off and peppered with an amalgam of Bantustans cut off from each other and surrounded by Jewish settlements and military checkpoints.Occupation 101 transitions to the past to give an overview of history, how Palestine was populated, which ethnic group was the majority and how Zionism encouraged Jewish emigration to the Holy Land to prepare for the establishment of a Jewish State at the expense of the indigenous population: the Palestinians. Through the voice of many experts, the film dispels myths that include the claim that Palestine was a land without a people for a people without a land, that Palestinians fled their homes at will and that massacres of entire villages did not occur. The film meanders through the Christian quarters of Jerusalem and shows that Christian Palestinians were equally victimized. Through the testimony of Israeli human rights activists, the film depicts the suffering of Palestinians in the West Bank, who are enduring the worst kind of ethnic cleansing, especially since Israel erected the apartheid wall, dividing villages, families and farmers from their land. The misery is compounded when Israel sends bulldozers to demolish homes and allows its lawless settlers uproot olive trees and steal land with impunity. With extreme injustice come extreme reactions: suicide bombings. Psychiatrists recognize that the trauma endured by a person who lost loved ones would easily lead him or her to commit acts of despair.
The final chapter of the film addresses U.S. aid to Israel, clearly proving that the United States government shamefully aids and abets a virulently racist, violent and terrorist state that has stolen land, forced its rightful owners out and continues to make their lives miserable through a brutal occupation paid for by American tax dollars.
Occupation 101 is a compelling documentary that every lover of peace and justice should watch. It is the truth that most Americans have been thwarted from knowing. It is also a testament that unless justice is established in Palestine, peace in the Middle East will simply never happen.
is a compelling documentary that every lover of peace and justice should watch. It is the truth that most Americans have been thwarted from knowing. It is also a testament that unless justice is established in Palestine, peace in the Middle East will simply never happen.
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