The Law in These Parts — Israel (2011)

           David Shulman, professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem and an activist in the Arab-Jewish partnership called Ta'ayush, called this movie "the finest Israeli documentary ever made about the [Israeli] occupation." The movie explores the systemic judicial injustices inflicted on hundreds of thousands of civilian Palestinians. The movie also "touches on the legality of torture, mass arrests, prolonged administrative detention without trial, the violent suppression of civilian demonstrations, punitive home demolitions, severe restrictions on freedom of movement, and other practices that have become commonplace under Israeli rule." The film maker gets the Israeli judges to describe what they have done, including one former member of Israel's Supreme Court. The judges admit that state security and control come before human rights and justice. Such is the "appalling record" of the Israeli judical system, says Shulman. Similar to this film is the documentary The Gatekeepers, which interviews the six living former heads of Israel's Shin Beth. See NYRB (May 22, 2014).