Yousef Aljuneidi
Mohd Nizam Bin Osman
Abstract
Palestinian feature cinema industry has suffered a lot under the occupation since the Israeli army announced the State of Israel on the
14th May 1948. However, Palestinian political factions have succeeded in developing film industry as an efficient means to highlight the Palestinian struggle and suffering and to expose the Israeli crimes and massacres to the whole world. This study aims to explore the role of Palestinian feature films in representing the Palestinian resistance cause. The study also attempts to come out with suggestions and solutions for the Palestinian feature film industry so as to make a more meaningful cinema in serving the Palestinian resistance cause more efficiently. The study employs a mixed methodology. Thus, two main methodological instruments are used. The first instrument falls the under the qualitative approach and consists of semi-structured interview of Palestinian academics, cinema experts and film critics. The second instrument, falling under the quantitative approach, is a survey conducted with Palestinian academics and students in Palestinian universities who were given a questionnaire to answer. Some of the findings of the study have revealed that Palestinian feature films should play significant roles in highlighting the resistance issue. Apart from this, the findings of the study have also revealed that Palestinian feature films
have presented the resistance issues however this is not sufficient. Hence, more efforts are needed to highlight the Palestinian resistance issue. This study would benefit academics, researchers, policy makers, students and other individuals and serve as a future
reference on the subject.