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The Film Institute and the various organizations’ other cinematic units ceased to function. The PLO’s Department of Culture continued to produce movies from its new domicile in Tunisia, among 27 PALESTINIAN CINEMA them some of the PLO’s best films. Two of the films were directed by Kaise a-Zubeidi: Barbed-Wire Homeland (1982) and Palestine: the Chronicle of a People (1984). The first, which describes the expansion of the settlements at the expense of Palestinian lands, was the earliest Palestinian production to consider the settlers, “with the intention of presenting the racist aspect of their religiouspatriotic beliefs” (private interview with Kaise a-Zubeidi, West Berlin, 1985).

Such attacks and the continuous closures with which Israel responded led to an endless cycle that worsened the financial situation of the Occupied Territories’ population. They also prompted the emergence of more shaheed, and resulted in another uprising, the Second Intifada, ignited in September 2000 by the visit of the head of the Israeli opposition at that time, Ariel Sharon, to Al Aqsa Mosque (Temple Mount). The Second Intifada, which in the beginning included an uprising of Arabs of Israeli citizenship, aggravated the condition of the Palestinians living in the Occupied Territories and increased the fissures within Palestinian society, as well as highlighting the militant voices of those in Israeli society and politics who opposed any peace agreement with the Palestinians.

The Red Cross imposed upon the director restrictions that form part of the organization’s policies, and forbade a political approach to the subject. A-Zubeidi insisted on emphasizing the political aspect of the problem, and reached an agreement with the representatives of the Red Cross. He produced two different versions of the movie, one compatible with the criteria of the organization that commissioned it, the other more personal and political. Azza al-Hassan’s film, She, the Sindibad (1999), endured the same fate.