The war between Israel and Palestine has been going on for thousands of years now. Many millions of people have died during this conflict, and even more so during recent years with the rise of terrorism and sophisticated bombing techniques. At the front lines of this war today are the Shin Bet, the Israeli Secret Service. Somehow assembling 6 former heads of the organization, director Dror Moreh showcases the tactical and philosophical behavior of the figureheads as they were in charge of the Shin Bet. When it isn’t surprising the audience with the leaders’ stances on certain groups, The Gatekeepers provides a fascinating insight into one of the most unknown, lethal and precise groups in the world.
The Gatekeepers starts after the 6 Day War and divides itself into 7 categories: The Rise of the Shin Bet, the 300 bus incident, the Oslo Accords, the Jewish Underground, the Palestinian negotiations, Israel and Hamas, and final reflections. The movie uses the point of view of the leaders of the organization to take us into the reasons behind their actions during these different time periods as well as their take on politics, terrorism, and the Palestinian state.
The Gatekeepers 6 heads vary in terms of screen presence and insight. Two stand out: Avraham Shalom, the oldest participant, has the most interesting perspective of the leaders: he sees himself as a tactician, morals, ethics, and such are to be determined by other people, his job is to carry out tasks others are afraid to do. For Shalom, the ends justify the means almost always: The 300 Bus Incident is the most fascinating segment as we see Shalom navigate around the blame and bring up how what is moral is a philosophy that he simply doesn’t have time to consider. The other head is Ami Ayalon, who was the biggest supporter of The Gatekeepers. As Shin Bet matured as an organization, philosophy had to be considered more at their level, such as public perception and things of that nature. Ayalon passionately talks about how people like the suicide bombers are generated from the leaders who talk them into performing such acts, but those philosophical leaders themselves cannot be attacked since their deaths will create even more terrorists to come forward. Ayalon gets the chilling last line of the movie, which I won’t spoil, but sums up his thoughts in a very ominous tone.
I went into this film thinking it was going to be a movie demagoging terrorism and Israel’s enemies. The Gatekeepers, in fact, takes a much more enlightened stance against institutions and misunderstanding. Politicians suffer mightily at the hands of this film. One director of Shin Bet pointed out how they are binary people: They only want to hear act/don’t act; multiple options are out the window. Politicians are also as cold as these leaders although they hide under the guise of morality if they’re of the right-wing: if something goes wrong, they blame it on the organization, if they’re right, they take all the credit. The one exception here is former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who came from security and thus understood the pressures these men were under. He was also the Prime Minister who started the idea of a Palestinian State and whose murder by a rogue gunmen (Shin Bet points this out) completely derailed the process and gave power to the right-wing of the Israeli party. This wing is also responsible for enabling the terrorism of the Jewish Underground, a radical party that tried to blow up the Dome of the Rock and other sacred Islamic sites. When Shin Bet would step in and stop these attacks, the arrested terrorist were let go with minimal sentences because of the misunderstanding of the lawmakers about Jewish law. When the 6 directors were asked what would be the best way to really minimize terrorism in the region, the answer from most was information/talking, so as to show the enemies were not evil people, just different people.
As sad and frustrating as the conflict is, The Gatekeepers provides information to the masses on how it is viewed from those who fight on the front lines. This information will probably be demagogued from both sides (Israelis as well as their enemies) meaning the film does a good job pointing out how much more there is to learn about this conflict from especially the decision makers on both sides of the conflict. One thing is for sure, I will be very careful not to cross paths with the Shin Bet, these guys are master tacticians.