Philippe Bellaiche

Filmmaker Avi Mograbi and his Arabic teacher and friend Ali Al Azhari go looking for the ruins of Ali’s village Saffuriya from which he was displaced during the 1948 Palestinian Nakba. Instead, they find a life that never ceased.

Lea Tsemel, a Jewish-Israeli lawyer, defends Palestinians: from feminists to fundamentalists, from nonviolent demonstrators to armed militants. As far as most Israelis are concerned, she defends the indefensible. As far as Palestinians are concerned, she’s more than an attorney, she’s an ally. «Advocate» follows Tsemel in real time, including the trial of a 13-year-old boy — her youngest client to date.

Since Israel was established and its legislature — the Knesset — first convened, Palestinian lawmakers have served alongside Jewish ones. They’ve included poets, playwrights, philosophers, doctors, lawyers, educators and feminist activists. Be they communists, liberals, nationalists, or Islamists — every Arab parliamentarian steps up to the podium with pain, frustration, anger, and hope (otherwise they wouldn’t be there). Yet, regardless of tone or tenor (provocative, poignant, polarizing, or pacifying), most of their words fall on deaf ears. Were we to listen to a collection of 3-minute speeches by these parliamentarians, what would we hear? A hungry appeal for a rightful place at the civic table, rather than the carrot, the stick, and civil rights crumbs begrudgingly swept off of it.

Lea Tsemel, a Jewish-Israeli lawyer, defends Palestinians: from feminists to fundamentalists, from nonviolent demonstrators to armed militants. As far as most Israelis are concerned, she defends the indefensible. As far as Palestinians are concerned, she’s more than an attorney, she’s an ally. «Advocate» follows Tsemel in real time, including the trial of a 13-year-old boy — her youngest client to date.

Lea Tsemel, a Jewish-Israeli lawyer, defends Palestinians: from feminists to fundamentalists, from nonviolent demonstrators to armed militants. As far as most Israelis are concerned, she defends the indefensible. As far as Palestinians are concerned, she’s more than an attorney, she’s an ally. «Advocate» follows Tsemel in real time, including the trial of a 13-year-old boy — her youngest client to date.

Since Israel was established and its legislature — the Knesset — first convened, Palestinian lawmakers have served alongside Jewish ones. They’ve included poets, playwrights, philosophers, doctors, lawyers, educators and feminist activists. Be they communists, liberals, nationalists, or Islamists — every Arab parliamentarian steps up to the podium with pain, frustration, anger, and hope (otherwise they wouldn’t be there). Yet, regardless of tone or tenor (provocative, poignant, polarizing, or pacifying), most of their words fall on deaf ears. Were we to listen to a collection of 3-minute speeches by these parliamentarians, what would we hear? A hungry appeal for a rightful place at the civic table, rather than the carrot, the stick, and civil rights crumbs begrudgingly swept off of it.