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Source: https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/11/26/palestine-36-is-an-insult-to-history/
"Palestine 36" Is an Insult to History
(Spiked-UK) James Heartfield - "Palestine 36" is a new movie about Arab resistance to colonialism in British-governed Palestine in the late 1930s, paid for with cash from BBC Films and the British Film Institute. But it suffers from a big problem: it is not true. The filmmaker, Annemarie Jacir, depicts the events of 1936 to 1939 as if the British are working on behalf of the Jewish settlers, who are depicted as vicious and rapacious "colonizers." Yet the truth about what is known as the Great Revolt is that the leaders of the Palestinian Arabs were more opposed to Jews than they were to British imperialism - indeed, they said straight-forwardly that they would have supported Britain if only it would stop Jewish immigration to Mandate Palestine. Jews are shown being allocated land by the British that was confiscated from Arabs. But that was not British policy. Whatever land Jews had in 1936, they had bought from Arab owners. "Palestine is not for sale," say protesters in the movie. But the truth is that it was, and for a decent profit, too, for Arab landowners. In Jacir's telling, the conflict started because Jews began killing Arabs. In the real 1936, however, the first victim was Israel Hazan, 70, a Jewish immigrant from Salonika, Greece. He was shot on his knees as he begged for mercy from the Arab militia that had abducted him. Jacir paints the British as wholly biased in favor of the Jews - another distortion. There were as many British officials who pulled in favor of the Arab cause as there were pulling the other way.