LONDON — Lia Tarachansky is a filmmaker and Israel/Palestine correspondent for The Real News Network (TRNN). Based in Jaffa, Israel, she produces short, documentary-style reports exploring the context behind the news. But instead of adhering to the standard narrative that usually frames Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Tarachansky imparts valuable insights that challenge the corporate-run media’s portrayal of these issues.
In 2012 Tarachansky produced and co-directed a BBC-Arabic documentary about Israel’s J14 social justice movement that prompted a wave of self-immolations in protest of the harsh economic reality many face in Israel.
The following year, she completed work on her first feature documentary, “On the Side of the Road.” In it, she explores the power of denial and raises questions about what Israelis learn, know, and sometimes choose not to know, about the 1948 war.
MintPress News covered this debate on Israeli identity in January, using Tarachansky’s documentary as a springboard for diving into the topic.
In a review of her 2013 documentary, the Daily Beast noted, “Tarachansky’s method is not to blame or even to teach. It is to examine, narrate and let others speak for themselves.”
Indeed, rather than attempt to assign blame and assert one’s “greater” right over the other, Tarachansky demonstrates her interest in understanding the dynamics of a conflict which now threatens to implode within Israeli society and destroy what began as one nation’s hope for a safer future.
Not only does Tarachansky’s documentary challenge Israel’s narrative on Palestinians, but it delves into the very essence of what it means to be Jewish in Israel, to be an Israeli. She herself was born in the former Soviet Union, then moved to an Israeli settlement in the West Bank with her mother as a child. She stayed there until moving to Canada for college, after which she returned to the Middle East as a journalist.
When MintPress asked Tarachansky to share her insights on Israel, separated from the narrative of war and the clamor of politics, what followed was an honest, open discussion on the realities of war and how they have impacted and defined both people and regional dynamics.