The Israeli Nasrallah Mug: Making a Balanced Middle East War Documentary!
Navigating Sensitive Conflicts: Lessons from a Middle East Filmmaker
I hadn't even finished writing and conceptualizing - as a freelancer - a documentary for Al Jazeera in 2010, when I had to face a torrent of criticism and insults from the Arab and Lebanese public because we posted a promotional photo of the film showing the flags of Hezbollah and Israel facing each other on Facebook.
The idea of the movie, which we decided to call "Zero Hour," was to conduct a hypothetical "simulation" of what a future war between the two sides would look like.
Normally, leaders of large armies use simulations to draw scenarios and make military plans. The use of simulations in the documentary was unprecedented.
Journalists covering the conflict in the Middle East often overlook the opinion of the other side, which leads to a severe lack of information and a lack of objective treatment of the journalistic or media product. We find that the Israeli press builds its information based on what is leaked by the military and security institutions in Tel Aviv, which is directly subject to military censorship, while the few Arab journalists who deal with this issue rely mostly on personal impressions or prejudice, in which political affiliation overlaps with ideological commitment, and to all this is added a dirty public awareness that mostly lacks scientific methodology and professionalism.
It is well known that Lebanon is at state of war with Israel, which occupies part of its territory and has launched five wars against this small country in three decades. Therefore, it is forbidden for any Lebanese to make any contact with an Israeli for any reason, and this law applies to journalism and media work.
Thus, I found myself facing a real dilemma. How can a movie of this sensitivity be produced without access to first-hand information? This dilemma is not limited to Israel, but the other main party in the film, Hezbollah, does not usually talk about its military preparations and deployment because it is a secret organization that adopts an asymmetric method of fighting.
I started with the public recommendations made by an Israeli commission of inquiry under the direction of Judge Eliyahu Winograd, which had the responsibility of evaluating the outcomes of the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.
The report, known as the Vinograd Report, contained important information about the most important gaps that Israel's military and political institutions need to address in any future war.
The search for primary sources also relied on dozens of specialized military studies conducted by American and Israeli think tanks. These are usually very important materials, large parts of which are generally neglected in the Arab media, and there is no accurate analysis or understanding of their methodology and importance.
I then identified expert figures with ties to the Israeli military to be interviewed.
Convincing the Israeli guests to be interviewed was not easy, especially since the process did not take place between us, as a team of researchers, editors, and screenwriters, and them directly due to legal considerations, but rather through a journalistic team based in Palestine. But in documentary production, the same refusal is itself material to be utilized.
Former IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz responded to our request for an interview with an angry and harsh email that we kept as material for the film. The reason for his refusal was to question the ability of an Arab media outlet to be "balanced" when talking about such a sensitive topic.
On the other end of the spectrum, we were denied a request to interview a Hezbollah military official, even though we suggested not showing his real face on camera. We decided to resort to interviewing military officers in the Lebanese army to compensate for this aspect, especially since the army in Lebanon is in direct contact with previous wars and is naturally concerned with any future war and military measures on the Lebanese side.
It soon became clear that both sides share the practice of psychological warfare and address their publics in a way that reassures them of their ability to defeat the other side. Thus, they might be interested in media talk, despite their intense hostility and lack of media appearances, if the idea of the movie is presented as it is and the necessity of interviewing all parties is explained; otherwise, it would appear that they have no solutions to the military "simulation" scenarios!
Thus, I succeeded in breaking through the wall of rejection from both sides, and I even got valuable contributions and information that I did not expect to receive.
Naim Qassem, Hezbollah's deputy leader, agreed to a lengthy interview after we explained that the Israelis would give their views on the subject. Two recently retired senior Lebanese officers agreed to an in-depth interview after doing their own research, as did an Arab officer.
At the other end of the spectrum, the Israeli guest, who served in military intelligence, had a coffee mug with a picture of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on his desk during the filming. The Israeli guest told the Palestinian journalist we hired to conduct the interview in Israel that the mug was a gift from one of his Lebanese friends!
Among the Israeli guests who agreed to be interviewed were a former Israeli Air Force colonel and director of a military intelligence program at the National Security Institute in Tel Aviv, a military correspondent for Israel's Army Radio, and a former U.S. military intelligence official.
The second challenge was that the screenwriter was Lebanese, which meant that I would be accused of bias even before the movie was finalized. To solve this issue, I decided to use the same Israeli studies that outline the scenarios of the next war as the main material to present to the various parties and ask them to comment on them. I also explored incorporating the scientific method used in scientific research into the movie's script. Thus, the movie began by posing hypotheses and questions and then moved on to trying to answer them through the various guests. The final script explained the themes of the ground battles, the role of the Israeli Air Force, Hezbollah's missile capabilities, modern Israeli anti-missile systems, and the measures taken to address the weaknesses that emerged on both sides in the 2006 war.
The movie received excellent coverage in various regional media outlets. The insults on my Facebook page three months before the movie's release quickly turned into a torrent of praise and congratulations.
It was unusual in the Middle East to produce a television production on such a sensitive issue as the "next" war and to host the various parties involved.
But my insistence on having Israeli guests in the movie and finding out their opinions about the possibilities of war and what will happen during it, as well as my keenness to make the "simulation" of the war a documentary as close to reality as possible, all contributed to the success of the work.
In 2012, less than two years after the screening of the documentary, I was given the opportunity to repeat the experience, but this time on a larger scale. I had learned a lot from the previous experience, and this time I produced a movie with a larger budget, titled "The Edge of the Abyss" in two parts.
The Americans and Iranians had not yet reached a nuclear deal at the time. The theme of the new movie was the possibility of a regional war involving Iran, the United States, Israel, Syria, Gaza and Lebanon. We were able to conduct more interviews and get the approval of key figures in the United States, Russia, Iran, and Israel.
The morning after the screening of the first part of the movie, an Israeli commentator, a well-known senior journalist, literally said on a television program on Israel's first official channel, "Brink of the Abyss is a balanced work."
Coming from someone who lives in a country that occupies part of my country and has repeatedly destroyed my home in the village with its repeated bombings and attacks, this statement was a testament to a job well done.
In the Middle East, it is not easy for any journalist or filmmaker to approach political or public affairs topics without expecting to be criticized or taking personal risks.
I've faced various threats after every major article or movie I've produced. I may write about that someday. But the media lesson I took away from 15 years of writing films, screenplays, and research is that pluralism is not a requirement for excellence only in the Middle East. Pluralism and cross border collaboration are the only way to excellence in journalism!