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The head of state who planted his trees himself

Ben-Gurion, Epilogue
Regissør: Yariv Mozer
(Israel/Frankrike)

Ben-Gurion, Epilogue is based on a hitherto unknown interview recording with Israel's highly esteemed Prime Minister.




(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)

If aliens from space had looked at Israel the way William Borroughs thought they would have looked on Earth by the way – "After a glance at the planet, anyone from outer space would say, 'I want to talk to the boss!'" – there's no doubt that The head of Israel would have been David Ben-Gurion. He was the country's most respected prime minister, and his leadership shoes have never really been filled since – not even by his significant protégé Shimon Peres. Unfortunately for extraterrestrial guests as well as for perplexed Israelis, Ben-Gurion died in 1973.

But wait a minute – what if it had been possible to get him back and hear what he has to say about Israel's problems today? About the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, for example?

Ben-Gurion, Epilogue, an Israeli documentary written and directed by Yariv Mozer, is attempting to do just that. The film is based on footage of a recently-discovered interview with Ben-Gurion that has never been shown.

Outspoken. The year is 1968. It is 20 years since Israel declared its independence, and one year since the country conquered territories in Egypt, Jordan and Syria. The 82 year-old Ben-Gurion has resigned from the government and lives alone in his desert kibbutz. He is no longer hampered by political considerations and can speak frankly.

Most of the film consists of Ben-Gurion's answers to questions from ethnographer Clinton Bailey, without interruption. But sometimes the filmmakers offer subtle explanatory explanations. For example, when Ben-Gurion talks about why he made connections with West Germany in the 1950s, despite strong opposition from people who had survived the Holocaust. Here he does not mention any possible causes – such as the help of German nuclear experts to build Israel's own nuclear capacity. This is just as suggested by a clip from German TV news.

When it comes to the areas that were conquered in the 1967 war, Ben-Gurion is quite frank – to such an extent that it will be tempting for today's viewers to pick out certain sentences to use in their own political agenda. When he says: "If I had to choose between peace and all the territories we conquered last year, I would prefer peace," it must be like music to the ears of the left. But when he emphasizes in the same breath that he does not want to withdraw from certain areas – (East) Jerusalem and (the former Syrian) Golan Heights – people on the right will probably rather prick up their ears.

The farm boy. Nevertheless, it would be unwise of anyone to claim that political decisions today can be based on the political realities of 50 years ago. And filmmaker Yariv Mozer has been wise enough not to do too much out of politics, but instead use the six hours of raw footage he has had available – along with film newspapers from the period – to create a character study with our own contemporaries as an obvious sounding board. From one utterance to the next, we slowly become acquainted with a leader who placed great emphasis on being a personal example, who was very familiar with other cultures and who gave an ethical vision to his people.

Ben-Gurion mentions his desire for Israel to be a "particularly noble" country.

These characteristics are particularly striking compared to many of today's politicians, whether they are lawyers or real estate magnates. The contrast between them and Ben-Gurion can be quite overwhelming. The latter worked as a farm boy when he came to the country in 1906. He left the government for two years in the 1950s to retire and cultivate the desert – and even as a pensioner he cut hay and planted trees. «I want to live in a place where everything is created by our own work… where I and my friends can say that we are behind what we see! … We created everything. "I know the trees I see I have planted myself," says Ben-Gurion.

Sincerity. When asked about the point of meditating, he patiently explains the difference between the Buddhist and the Jewish traditions. He was as well versed in the Dhammapada's Buddhist aphorisms as in the texts of the biblical prophet Jeremiah.

In a beautiful scene where the camera turns away from the desert shed where the footage of the long-lost interview took place, we see Ben-Gurion dressed as a Buddhist at a shrine in Burma (today Myanmar) in conversation with the Burmese Prime Minister U Nu. The conversation is about whether or not it would be possible to "get rid of all the problems in the world" by "getting rid of the word 'I' and the I-consciousness". In this scene, Ben-Gurion's warmth and esteem are now clearly visible to Ben-Gurion – feelings shared by many other international leaders, especially the heads of government of the newly independent African countries. Ben-Gurion mentions his desire for Israel to be a "particularly noble" country, and during his 13 years as prime minister, Israel also had a leading role in the world in providing medical assistance and support to agriculture in postcolonial Africa.

Ben-Gurion also managed to gain the respect of some Arab leaders, including Musa Alami, who was then the Palestinian de facto manager. Alami points to a 40-year friendship with Ben-Gurion and says he liked him especially for his sincerity, although it "could be almost scary". This honesty was the very epitome of Ben-Gurion. During his reign, the country was on good terms with most other countries and was united within.

The state's Einstein. But Ben-Gurion is reluctant to take credit for much of what he has done. "I did not lead Israel, I led myself," he says as he tries to honor the pioneer peasants who came to the country as early as 1870. He points out that when he met Albert Einstein, he asked the physics genius if it was true that he had hatched the theory of relativity entirely on its own. Einstein said, Ben-Gurion recalls, that he based his theory on experiments performed by others.

Nevertheless, it is clear that without Einstein there would have been no theory of relativity. Likewise, there is little doubt about Ben-Gurion's role in Israel's history. Without him, it is difficult to imagine that the modern state of Israel would ever have been created.

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