Institute For Middle East Studies

The Law in These Parts is an unprecedented exploration of the evolving and little-known legal framework that Israel has employed to administer its 40-year military occupation of the West Bank and, until 2005, the Gaza Strip. Celebrated Israeli filmmaker Ra’anan Alexandrowicz (The Inner Tour) elicits this story from the very military judges, prosecutors and legal advisors who helped create the system and who agreed to take the cinematic witness chair to explain their choices.

Weaving together these interviews with archival footage, often in the same frame, Alexandrowicz has crafted a comprehensive and evocative portrait of a key facet of one of the world’s most stubborn and enduring conflicts. In doing so, The Law in These Parts reveals not only the legal architecture of military occupation, but also its human impact on both Palestinians and Israelis. The film asks a question as troubling as it is unavoidable: Can a modern democracy impose a prolonged military occupation on another people while retaining its core democratic values? Winner of jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival and Best Documentary at the Jerusalem Film Festival.