Full Description
Who wants to live where they aren’t wanted? Where one’s personal safety can only be guaranteed by the presence of a military battalion and a series of checkpoints at which fellow residents are constantly subjected to spot searches? Those are some of the questions viewers are asked to contemplate as they watch Soldier on the Roof, a compelling documentary set among the several hundred Jewish settlers in Hebron on the West Bank. At the site of Abraham’s tomb, the tension encapsulates the larger struggle between Muslims and Jews for land sacred to both faiths. Filmmaker Esther Hertog spent three years living with the settlers, and her film provides us with a sense of the militant faith that fueled their efforts to create their own community amid Hebron’s 120,000 Palestinian residents. We see the settlers in their homes, at play and at prayer. We also see them as they direct their hatred toward their Arab neighbors, derision toward peace organizations and adoration to the young soldiers who protect them 24 hours a day. Soldier on the Roof doesn’t point the viewer toward any potential path of peace and reconciliation. Instead it serves as a poignant reminder of the long, hard road that faces both Israelis and Palestinians committed to peaceful coexistence.
