by Sam Bahour | May 30, 2022 | Documentaries
H2 is the name given to the eastern part of Hebron, the only Palestinian urban area which remains under full Israeli military control, due to the presence of several hundred settlers. Through rare archive footage and interviews with Hebron’s military commanders, “H2: The Occupation Lab” tells the story of a place which is both a microcosm for the entire conflict, and a test lab for methods of control implemented in the West Bank.
by Sam Bahour | April 15, 2022 | Writings
by Sam Bahour | February 2, 2022 | Documentaries
“A land without a people, and a people without a land” is how the relationship between Palestine and the Jewish people was described by Christian writers in the 1800s. And the 20th-century history of the Middle East has largely been written through these eyes. But this film from Al Jazeera Arabic looks at Palestine from a different angle. It hears from historians and witness accounts, and features archive documents that show Palestine as a thriving province of Greater Syria and the Ottoman Empire at the dawn of the 20th century.
by Sam Bahour | January 24, 2022 | Documentaries
When Israeli graduate student Teddy Katz meticulously documented a massacre of Palestinian civilians surrounding Israel’s independence, he was initially celebrated for his groundbreaking work. But soon, he was stripped of his degrees and was publicly shamed as a fraudulent traitor. Decades later, incendiary new evidence emerges to corroborate Teddy’s initial findings, not just vindicating him, but raising profound questions about how Israelis — and we all — deal with the darker chapters of history.
by Sam Bahour | November 20, 2021 | Documentaries
Boycott traces the impact of state legislation designed to penalize individuals and companies that choose to boycott Israel due to its human rights record. A legal thriller with “accidental plaintiffs” at the center of the story, Boycott is a bracing look at the far-reaching implications of anti-boycott legislation and an inspiring tale of everyday Americans standing up to protect our rights in an age of shifting politics and threats to freedom of speech.
by Sam Bahour | November 2, 2021 | Documentaries
The traumatic story of Deir Yassin, the Palestinian village located near Jerusalem that was invaded, conquered, and emptied by Jewish underground fighters in April 1948, is told through first-hand testimonies by Jewish fighters who participated and youths who were sent in to “mop up” the dead. In parallel, the film tells the story of Dror Nissan, a man who tries to discover the secrets of his origins by visiting the Israeli government psychiatric hospital built on the grounds of Deir Yassin in 1951.
by Sam Bahour | September 27, 2021 | Books, Writings
Featuring a chapter by Sam. “President Donald Trump’s term in office significantly affected the way the United States is seen by other nations in the international setting. This book presents 18 case studies of the effect of Trump policies and behavior on the U.S. standing abroad, and examines the long-term consequences of these effects.” A big hats off to Professor Gregory Mahler, Research Professor of Politics and Academic Dean Emeritus at Earlham College, as well as to all the distinguished fellow contributors from around the world.