Ma'loul Celebrates Its Destruction

Directed by Michel Khleifi

Since the declaration of the state of Israel in 1948, countless Palestinian villages have been erased from the map. This film uses poignant images of bombardments, destroyed buildings, and disfigured people to illustrate this. All that remains are ruins, bearing silent witness in the landscape. Ma'Loul, just west of Nazareth, is one such ruined village. It was inhabited principally by Palestinian Christians, who were forced to leave in 1948 during the Israeli War of Independence. A detailed painting still bears testimony to the existence of the village, which had seen Jewish, Roman, Ottoman, and Palestinian rulers come and go since ancient times. But Ma'Loul also lives on in the memories of its former -- now elderly -- inhabitants, who tell the story of exactly what happened.