Law and Sedition in Israeli Films: From the Assassination of Itzhak Rabin to the Hilltop Movement

Abstract

In this article I analyze various Israeli fi lms and documentaries, and in particular Rabin, the Last Day (Amos Gitai, 2015), to discuss political sedition in Israel in the mid-1990s. This period is characterized most prominently by the assassination of Prime Minister Itzhak Rabin, but also by the creation of the political climate that made the assassination possible, and which ultimately helped stall the peace process. I discuss to what extent fi ctional fi lms (better than documentaries) can help the historian shed light on a particular historical period when primary sources are either unavailable or only partially available, and the relationship between primary sources and historically plausible fi ction. In this framework I also consider how cinema can help construct a narrative, and ultimately a collective memory, that provides an alternative to the offi cial one.

“The Dreamers of Lost Dreams”

“…This film is structured around the triangle of forces that led to the killing of Rabin: lunatic rabbis using all sort of witchcraft, extreme right-wing settlers who were against the withdrawal from Israeli territory on religious grounds, and the parliamentary right, which wasn't really active in the killing of Rabin, but was happy to see him being demolished and discredited. (Kamin 2015: 4) Elsewhere, I have analyzed cinematic representations of law and sedition in the State of Israel in the mid-1990s (Simoni 2018). I take a different approach here, looking at how the primary sources used in Rabin both represent historical testimonies and have been transformed for the broader public.…”

“…Moreover, Gitai's Rabin surpasses these works in various ways: the use of primary sources is more sophisticated, the creative process more successful, and the integration between the two better articulated. As such, Rabin also offers a more comprehensive picture of the political shifts of the mid-1990s and how they affected the course of politics in Israel (Bendelac 2022;Del Sarto 2017;Simoni 2018;).…”