Review of The Gatekeepers (2012) by V H — 24 Feb 2013

In "The Gatekeepers", six former heads of Shin Bet, the Israel internal intelligence agency, participate in a series of extremely candid interviews regarding their years of service. Among the subjects covered are the expansion of settlements, right-wing Jewish terrorists, the two-state solution, "collateral damage", torture, targeted assassinations, suicide bombings, excessive use of force, morality, and the problems with politicians.

Their opinions are insightful and nuanced. The fact that they even agreed to be interviewed is incredible. The interviews are supplemented with old photographs and video footage as well as computer generated reenactments, some of which I didn't realize were reenactments until after the movie.

While watching this film, I found myself regularly vacillating between hopeful and hopeless. The uplifting footage from the signing of the Oslo Accords with Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin shaking hands as a youthful Bill Clinton looks on is almost painful to watch when viewed with the knowledge that it all so quickly fell apart. And though it's encouraging to hear these once-powerful men admit that some of their actions made things worse rather than better and suggesting that negotiating with the Palestinians is the only real solution, the bubble bursts when you remember that even when these guys were still in charge, it was actually the politicians who were pulling the strings.

"The Gatekeepers" is an extremely interesting film about a very important topic. That said, about thirty minutes into it, the people seated on both sides of me had their eyes closed and the man in front of me was snoring. This at 4:30 in the afternoon. All I could think of is that the subtitles did them in. I may be wrong, but each burst of Hebrew seemed to translate into about twice as many English words. So obviously, don't go to this movie unless you're prepared to read. A lot.

On the other hand, if you have any interest at all in the never-ending Israeli-Palestinian conflict, you won't want to miss this. It's refreshing to hear men who were in the thick of things long enough to really understand the situation questioning the current methods even though they're not actually in a position to effect a change. Though publicly expressing themselves is a good start.