Rage Lists
Yaron Ben-Haim’s protest journal is a two-part, seven-years-long odyssey. From the social protest of Summer 2011 up to the weekly demonstration against the separation barrier in Ni’lin. The movie traces the changes in Israeli society, alongside the personal costs of social activism in general, and particularly in the Palestinian village.
First list (2011-2012)
Yaron and his girlfriend say goodbye to Layka, their beloved dog. Yaron documents the demonstrations in which he takes part. Filming dogs in demonstrations become a weird obsession. The social protest starts, and Yaron continues to film dogs in demonstrations. He keeps doing it when the protest starts to decline. His girlfriend wants to adopt a new dog, but he thinks the responsibility is too much. His disillusionment grows alongside the decline of the protest.
Second list (2014-2017)
The Israeli street becomes more racist and violent all the time. The change is reflected in the verbal and physical violence encountered by human-rights activists and left-wing demonstrators in the summer of 2014. This wave reaches its peak in October 2015, with a number of lynch incidents against Palestinians who are suspected to be terrorists, and the Eritrean refugee, Habatum Zaharom (29), who was lynched by a raging mob in Beer Sheba’s main bus station.
Yaron finds himself demonstrating regularly in the Friday protests at Ni’lin, in the West Bank. He befriends Hasan, who regularly documents the small protests, and another protester, Abu Naser, who comes to the demonstrations armed with a megaphone, and preaches for non-violence in Hebrew in front of the soldiers. Abu Naser is fully aware of the news behind the separation wall. He is aware of the racism, the hatred, the political corruption, and uses it all as a rhetoric tool when he attempts to convince the soldiers to stop the violent oppression of these small demonstrations.