Land for the Nomads

Doc, 55 min DVCam, 2012
Written, directed and produced by: Lipika Pelham
Editor: Eyal Tuizer
Languages: English, Hebrew and Arabic with English subtitles

Synopsis

Israel says that it is planning to remove and relocate 2300 Bedouins from the Judean desert, east of Jerusalem. The plan will eventually evacuate an estimated 27,500 Bedouins living in the West Bank, which Israel occupied in 1967. They were displaced from the southern Negev desert around 1950 shortly after the creation of Israel. In what’s seen as a gradual process since the 1970s, state-sponsored Jewish settlements mushroomed up all along the desert, limiting the Bedouins’ nomadic way of life.

Shlomo Lecker is an Israeli lawyer who defies all stereotypes. He is a Jew who fights for the Arab Bedouins. He is an Israeli who challenges the Israeli judiciary. The film explores Lecker’s personal relationship with his clients – the lone Israeli who claims that he has a Bedouin soul. The twist in the story and the interesting polarities of his character are revealed when the director confronts him in his house – formerly abandoned by Palestinian refugees in 1948.

“Land for the Nomads” narratively observes issues that are between the personal and the national, the modern and the traditional, the exotic and the familiar, with irony and humor that make the film accessible to a wider audience.