Review: ‘West of the Jordan River’ Examines the Mideast Peace Process

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The Israeli director Amos Gitai models “West of the Jordan River” on his earlier “Field Diary,” a 1982 documentary that he filmed in the occupied territories. At the opening of the new film, Mr. Gitai somewhat pretentiously likens his role to that of an “archaeologist” of negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

This episodic documentary jumps back and forth in time, mainly between 1994, when Mr. Gitai filmed an interview with Yitzhak Rabin, then the Israeli prime minister, who was assassinated a year later, and 2016, when Mr. Gitai surveys the aftermath of the stalled peace process that Rabin fought for.

In the Rabin interview, the prime minister explains to the filmmaker how he reached the decision to negotiate with the Palestine Liberation Organization, and argues for the necessity of social and economic development with Arab partners to secure a lasting peace. Other footage from 1994 — some shot in Gaza and at a checkpoint on the Israeli-Gaza border — is presented as a reminder that the past was not all that different from the present.

Through interviews with Israeli politicians, and Palestinians and Israelis in the West Bank, “West of the Jordan River” gives voice to peace-seeking residents on both sides of the conflict. The journalist Ari Shavit, who wrote for the newspaper Haaretz before resigning after being accused of sexual harassment, says that if settlement construction continues, Israel will be forced to choose between abandoning its status as a Jewish state or abandoning its status as a democracy — a recipe for national suicide.

Mr. Gitai, who frequently cuts to himself listening, or interrupts his subjects with questions and counterarguments, comes across as a determined if smug guide. “Nothing is more solid than the coalition of those who oppose peace,” he says at one point, but he does find signs for optimism. He films an association of Israeli and Palestinian women who have lost loved ones to the conflict and feel united in their bereavement. And in a rather on-the-nose closing note for the film, he shows Israelis and Palestinians playing backgammon together.