War. War never changes. Between June 5 and June 10, 1967, Israel fought a two-front war against the collected forces of Syria, Egypt and Jordan. Looking down the literal barrel of existential destruction, Israeli forces succeeded in handily defeating the collected Arab forces with lightning-fast operations — with Bill Downs of ABC News quoting unnamed US Department of Defense officials renaming "an old combat tactic, now calling it the 'blintzekrieg.'" The results of this war would shape the modern-day borders of what we know as Israel today.
After the conflict, many soldiers who fought recorded their recollections about the war at their local kibbutz (a community hall originally centered around agriculture; those who frequented them were called "kibbutzniks"), telling stories about reflecting their terror, disgust and broken hearts. Only about 30 percent of the recordings were released, until now, and that is the premise of the new documentary Censored Voices.
The film consists largely of a voice-over of the recordings coupled with present-day reaction shots of the ex-soldiers who are featured in the recordings, as well as film footage of the war and ABC News interviews with Israeli soldiers.
The film delves into the emotional toll that combat can exact on those who participate in it and explores the concept of the "just war."
Chilling eyewitness accounts of murder and the forced evacuation of Arab civilians and surrendered fighters by Israeli soldiers are heart-wrenching, with more than a few expressing empathy for those they killed or displaced. Censored Voices is definitely a slow burn, with steady pressure being mounted moment after moment, atrocity after atrocity. If you lack any information on the recent history of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Censored Voices is an excellent place to start. If anything, the film's subject matter remains timely and shows us that war … war never changes.
Censored Voices
CCA Cinematheque, NR,
87 min.
Santa Fe Reporter