Michael Melchior, rabbi and former Cabinet Minister, a leading negotiator in interfaith dialogue between Jews and Arabs, known for his open dialogue with Jihadists. Melchior is a leading advocate both for social justice in Israel and towards a more tolerant Judaism. He believes it is the plan of God, which has brought the Palestinians and the Jews to the same land, which they in his opinion are chosen to share. Now increased terror both in Israel and Europe seems to shake his very strong belief in peace. “People are afraid today, and fear is, you are afraid of different things. Part of this fear is created, because we don´t know each other”, stated a deeply moved and very concerned Rabbi. But he is never giving up, and hope is the weapon of Rabbi Melchior and his partners.
Avraham Burg is born into politics as a son of one of Israel´s founding fathers and today a disputed political writer and social activist in the country. Burg had a very active political career and strong relations to Jewish values as both a former member and speaker of Knesset and appointed Chairman of the Jewish Agency and the World Zionist Organization. He is now a strong critic of the Israeli occupation, the erosion of democracy and the role of fear in Jewish everyday life. The eternal abuse of victimhood throughout centuries and the often chosen correlation between anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism. ”The humiliated nation has become the humiliating nation -a vicious pathological circle, which we can not apologize,” Burg emphasizes.
Yoram Barak is a Professor of Psychiatry and specialist in the trauma of Holocaust. He has in-depth knowledge about the traumas and how they are inherited and transferred through out generations. A ”poisonous legacy” , abused by Israeli governments in order to keep the Jewish people in the traumatic past. A dark heritage, which in his opinion is difficult to break and escape. Barak´s ability to analyze the consequences in society is almost desperate clear, although with humor in the beginning. But after the Gaza war and an election even more hostile to peace than before, Barak sees no hope and no compassion in the Israeli society and in the end of the film Barak and his wife, leave Israel for a longer period of reflection.
Hanna Yablonka is a Professor of Holocaust Studies at the Ben-Gurion University. A controversial historian known for her outspoken criticism on Holocaust education which she calls ”pure Holocaust pornography”. Yablonka is deeply related to the heritage of the Holocaust through her parents both survivors from Auschwitz. She is the only of the four characters with this relation, a heritage which Yablonka has been struggling against both in her education and her outspoken criticism of the government´s abuse of Holocaust. Despite her rejection of victimh ood Yablonka was caught by the waves of anti-Semitism after the Gaza war. Suddenly the impact of a traumatic heritage was clear. In the end Hanna expressed a deep concern of the future of her adult children in Israel. She wished them to leave.
A period of change took place in Israel during the two years of shooting the documentary. Hopes and moments of stability were replaced by the Gaza War, the peace process collapsed, and people of the Left Wing were marginalized and persecuted. Finally a new election highly stabilized the government in it´s nationalistic position.