Tangled Roots

Synopsis

Tangled Roots (Shiur Moledet) is a brief televised guide to the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A succinct, lucid summary and concise presentation of its basic concepts and decisive events, while laying them out on a timeline and a spatial map, related from a variety of viewpoints and positions concerning the conflicted parties. Each of the 6 episodes begins with the following questions: “What is it about our Israeli-Palestinian conflict that won’t allow it to end? Is what happened between us really so unforgivable and unsolvable?”

Anat Zeltser and Modi Bar-On return to this story once again, but this time they try to tell it, not as a quarrel is recounted but as a lesson is taught. It begins at the end of the 19th century when Jerusalem awakens from a long Ottoman sleep and becomes the centre of international attention once again. The years-long coexistence between Palestine’s Arab majority and Jewish minority starts to crumble as the pioneers of Jewish nationalism meet the seedlings of Arab nationalism. The British, who conquered Palestine in World War I, shower contradicting promises on the Jews and the Arabs and the two fledgling nationalist movements start on their collision course.

With incredible attention to detail, the researchers of this show have uncovered incredible primary documents from the time to tell the story of this twice promised land in a manner never done before to an Israeli audience.