Blue Box.
Winner DocAviv Film Festival 2021 (Research Award)
Nominee: Dokufest International Documentary and Short Film Festival 2021 (Truth Award)
Directed by Michal Weits, the great grand daughter of Joseph Weitz known as the father of Israel’s forests.
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Michal Weits, the filmmaker, made this film about her great grandfather, Joseph Weitz who held the position of chief of afforestation ( planting new trees) and acquiring land in Israel before and after it became an independent state. In the 1930’s tracts of land were bought from absentee land owners, effendi. The tenant inhabitants, Palestinian Arabs, were then evicted from the lands. The Jews moved in and took over these villages. After the 1948 War of Independence, 750,000 Palestinians Arabs, in fear, fled their own lands in Israel. Their villages were either destroyed or occupied by the many Jews who emigrated to Israel, These villages were primarily occupied, as and when the major cities in Israel became over populated. Josef Weitz enabled the destruction of the deserted Arab villages and the construction of Jewish settlements.
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Subsequently, Josef Weitz feared that there would be repercussions if the Israeli government did not find a solution for the Palestinian refugee problem. He urged Ben Gurion, the Prime Minister of Israel, at that time, to do something about the displaced groups of Palestinians, but, to no avail!
