What is your zone of interest?
Por el Jazán Paul Heller
Jonathan Glazer seems to overlook the fact that Gaza was not under occupation on October 7, 2023. and hasn’t been occupied since 2005. Israel’s move to occupy the West Bank came as a necessity after the events of 1967. Golda Meir’s statements, which have been echoed in recent film productions, illustrate this point clearly. Had there been a deeper dive into more accurate sources, much like the thorough research evidently you made in works as those by Harding or Boyne a more informed perspective might have been achieved. Israel’s stance has been one of reluctance towards occupation, with numerous efforts made to grant Palestinians autonomy.
In the well deserved recognition on your film “Zone of Interest,” you portray the Jewish victims massacred in KL Auschwitz while Commander Höss and his family lead an idyllic existence with the crematorium just beyond the walls of their garden—a stark contrast indeed. This situation mirrors how Hammas leaders live in opulence, utilizing luxury houses or tunnels, while their people suffer, used as human shields on land that is, in fact as mentioned not occupied and also, Mr Glazer, Hammas has also terrorised by massacres, suicidal bombings, stabbings, the killings of innocent Israeli civilians throughout the past two decades not to speak of the thousands of missiles they have fired into civilian populations in Israel.
It’s crucial to have your historical and geographical facts as accurate as in your filmmaking. By promoting the actions of Hammas, like those on October 7th, and wearing those pins at the Oscars ceremony you and those who support your views and which inadvertently symbolized the very opposite of your intended message.
As a second-generation Holocaust survivor, one might expect a deeper empathy and respect for both your Jewish heritage and the innocent Palestinians, who are victims of Hammas, not the Israeli military.
This military has made the tough choice to send young soldiers to die into urban combat, trying to save the hundreds of kidnapped women children and elderly on Oct 7, while the use of air strikes was an option Israel did not choose precisely to avoid further collateral damage.
As in the book of Amis and your film one wonders why the world has been observing in silence the emergence of evil sponsored by Iran and its proxies. It might be that there is a zone of interest. What’s yours?
