I mai 1948, rett etter utbruddet av den arabisk-israelske krigen, okkuperes den palestinske landsbyen Tantura av israelske styrker. På 90-tallet leverer den israelske studenten Teddy Katz en masteroppgave basert på vitnesbyrd fra okkupasjonen. Disse vitnene, både palestinere og israelske soldater, hevder at militæret er skyldig i en massakre av Tanturas beboere. Anklagene skaper oppstyr i Israel og Katz fratas graden sin. Masteroppgaven, som fikk høyeste karakter, fjernes fra universitetets bibliotek.

Med utgangspunkt i Katz’ intervjuopptak fordyper regissør Alon Schwarz seg i en hendelse som utgjør et fragment i den langvarige og uendelig kompliserte Israel-Palestina-konflikten, men som har stor betydning i striden om det offisielle narrativet. Slik det poengteres i filmens åpning: Det israelerne kaller selvstendighetskrigen ser palestinerne som en del av Al-Nakba – “katastrofen”. Schwarz’ film skildrer kampen om hvilken versjon av sannheten skal få plass i historiebøkene.

Denne visningen er et samarbeid mellom TIFF, Senter for fredsstudier ved UiT, Palestinakomiteen i Tromsø og Film for Palestine. Etter visningen blir det en samtale med førsteamanuensis Nadim Khoury.

Merk: Filmen vises med engelske undertekster.

Gratis inngang!

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Did Israeli soldiers conduct a massacre in a Palestinian village in 1948? Tantura sheds light on the many testimonies, the attempts to refute them, and the significance of which side can define the truth about what happened.

In May 1948, shortly after the outbreak of the Arab–Israeli War, the Palestinian village Tantura is occupied by Israeli forces. In the 1990s, Israeli student Teddy Katz submitted a thesis based on witness testimonies from both Palestinians and Israeli soldiers. They claim the military was responsible for a civilian massacre in Tantura, and this proves highly controversial in Israel. Katz’s degree is revoked and the top-graded thesis is removed from the university’s library.

Having gotten access to Katz’s audio testimonies, director Alon Schwarz examines the event – a small piece in the long-standing and impossibly complicated conflict between Israel and Palestine, but one that has significant implications in the fight for the official narrative. As the film’s opening points out: What Israelis call the War of Independence, Palestinians view as a part of Al-Nakba – “the catastrophe”. Schwarz’s film portrays the battle over which version of truth should prevail when history is written.

In the year 1948, Palestinians faced a vicious war launched by Zionist militia who immigrated to Palestine with the facilitation of the British mandate, based on Great Britain’s interest and promise in establishing a Jewish homeland for European Jews at the cost of Palestinians and their homeland.

A war that led approximately 750,000 Palestinians to flee their villages and cities under the gunfire and the fear of the roaming stories about massacres and atrocities that happened to the areas that have fallen to the Zionist’s hold.

By the year 1949, Zionists had control over 78% of historical Palestine, forced its population to flee, took over their properties and lives, and established the state of Israel on it.

On top of the illegality of the Zionist project of occupying Palestinians’ homeland, Zionist militia committed barbaric atrocities and massacres against Palestinians to force them out of their homes. Ethnic cleansing, massacres, genocides, rape, and killing of children and armless prisoners have been kept in the shadow of history, with constant efforts from Israel to deny such history and rather rewrite it in a different narrative, and here comes the documentary "Tantura", on the line between truth and rewritten history. To commemorate the 75 anniversary of Nakba 1948 (Arabic term for catastrophe) TIFF in partnership with the Center for Peace Studies, Palestina Committee, and Film for Palestine group arranged for a special screening of ‘Tantura’, which will be followed by a conversation with the Palestinian associate professor Nadim Khoury.

- Bahaa Eleyan

Free admittance.