So, Israel Is The Jewish State

Well, that's what I infer from this critic's review of the film set in Ramallah, Laila's Birthday.

Stephen Holden writes of

a movie, written and directed by Rashid Masharawi (“Waiting,” “Curfew”), that compiles a sky-high dossier of everyday urban frustrations and small absurdities all magnified by the Israeli occupation. (There are no Israelis in the film.)

So, if there are no Israelis in the movie, and the star, Mohammad Bakri, whose relatives were involved in a terrorist attack, is an Israeli citizen, what actually is Holden's subtext is whether or not there are Jews in the movie.

So, maybe the director does recognize, even if in the negative or the absence, that Israel is the Jewish state?


And as for Bakri, whose relatives were implicated in a terror bombing of a bus, here's his artistic credo:

"I lie, they say. Yes, maybe there is an instance in which I lie - when it is a matter of human lives, I lie. If my lie saves people, then I am proud to lie. I lie when I create hope out of nowhere. But those who cause me to lie are not the ones who were standing here outside and screaming like wild beasts. You are the ones who cause me to lie, you are the ones who help me create a new world."