Podcast Summary: Making the Film 'Palestine 36'

Podcast: The Chris Hedges Report
Host: Chris Hedges
Guest: Annemarie Jacir (Writer-Director)
Date: March 30, 2026

Overview

This episode features an in-depth conversation between Chris Hedges and Palestinian filmmaker Annemarie Jacir about her new film Palestine 36. The film reconstructs the seminal 1936-39 Arab revolt against British colonialism and Zionist expansion in Palestine. Through historical drama, archival footage, and nuanced storytelling, Jacir unpacks the dynamics of colonial power, the intricacies of Palestinian society under siege, and the contemporary resonance of these events, particularly in light of ongoing conflict in Gaza.

Main Themes & Discussion Points

The Historical Context of Palestine 36

• Hedges provides an extensive historical introduction, noting the 100-year colonial war for Palestine, beginning with British promises in the 1917 Balfour Declaration and culminating in the formation of a parallel Zionist para-state ([00:10]).
• The British facilitated the creation of a segregated economy, exclusion of Arab labor, and the influx of Jewish settlers, laying ground for later ethnic cleansing in 1948.
• The 1936-39 Arab Revolt is described as a mass, brutalized uprising against this order, with Jacir’s film capturing the drama and the brutal British repression, including techniques that became the blueprint for later Israeli tactics.

Quote:
"The film... depicts the discrimination and oppression of Palestinians by the British that led to the uprising and a six month national general strike. It dramatizes British counterinsurgency tactics perfected in India and later adopted by the Israelis." — Chris Hedges [00:10]

Why Focus on 1936?

• Jacir chose this period as it is the origin of Palestinian national consciousness and a critical yet underrepresented moment in popular history ([05:00]).
• She underscores that while written about in academia, the general public remains largely unaware of its significance.

Quote:
"It's really the beginning of the national movement... It's a moment of real possibility. And I'd never seen it on film." — Annemarie Jacir [05:00]

The Brutality of British Colonialism

• Both note widespread ignorance of the extent of British violence and suppression in Palestine, and Jacir reveals being shocked by archival accounts of massacres and “revenge missions” ([06:30], [06:56]).
• The continuity between colonial tactics then and contemporary Israeli practices is highlighted.

Quote:
"The blueprint of military occupation that we live today... is set up there at that point." — Annemarie Jacir [06:56]

Imported Counterinsurgency: The Taggart Forts & British Tactics

• Discussion of British officer Charles Taggart, whose strategies from India—“the first concept of the wall” and fort construction—were transplanted to Palestine ([08:43]).
• The film shows how “divide and conquer” and engineered apartheid began under British rule.

Contemporary Resonance and Parallels

• Hedges and Jacir repeatedly draw lines from the 1936 events to the Palestinian experience today, underlining multi-generational cycles of search, criminalization, and intimidation by authorities ([09:27], [10:30]).

Quote:
"Every day of our lives we are searched and we are criminalized... For how many generations? This is my grandparents' generation... my parents, my generation, my daughter. And what has really changed? Not much." — Annemarie Jacir [10:30]

Intra-Palestinian Divisions and Colonial Manipulation

• The film highlights class and urban-rural divides among Palestinians, showing how the British and Zionist commissions exploited these through economic means, political co-opting, and media manipulation ([11:28], [12:20]).
• The use of fake news and paid informants is paralleled to modern disinformation tactics.

Quote:
"The Zionists understood very well that... divide and conquer is the only way. So they secretly created these Muslim organizations to break the solidarity... and they were paying them." — Annemarie Jacir [12:20]

Illusions About Imperial Power

• The educated elite’s misreading of the nature of British intentions, similar to later misplaced faith in US mediation, is explored ([16:25]).
• The British deliberately played both sides and stoked divisions to maintain control.

Quote:
"We have to completely separate... or else they'll both eat us alive. And I think the British, of course... were playing everybody off of each other in a way to just remain in control." — Annemarie Jacir [16:54]

On Refuge and Zionism

• Jacir reflects on Palestine as historically multi-ethnic and multi-religious, contrasting voluntary integration with the dispossessive aims of Zionism ([19:15]).

Quote:
"If Jews had fled and they came to Palestine for safety, and it wasn’t about Zionism... We would be living a very different reality today. But it was not that. It was a movement to control and dispossess the indigenous population." — Annemarie Jacir [19:15]

Christian Zionism and Orde Wingate

• The film includes the character of Orde Wingate, a Christian Zionist British officer whose eccentric violence and messianic zeal reinforced British-Zionist policies ([21:59], [22:37]).
• Jacir notes that Wingate was so extreme he was eventually dismissed even by the British.

Quote:
"For me, the hair was like an indication that he was not exactly... He was really out there doing his own thing and functioning in his own way. And he was a terror for us. He's an absolute terror. And the Israelis consider him the godfather of the Israeli army." — Annemarie Jacir [23:42]

Human Shields and The Cycle of Repression

• The film shows the British use of human shields, directly echoing identical tactics in the present; the day Jacir filmed such a scene, an almost identical incident occurred in the West Bank ([25:14]).

Quote:
"There is no past and present. It's all blobbed together. We're still living the same thing." — Annemarie Jacir [25:36]

The Filmmaking Process under Occupation and War

Challenges and Persistence

• Filming was upended by the 2023 Gaza war—shooting was interrupted, locations lost, and the team displaced. They eventually filmed parts in Jordan before returning covertly to Palestine ([27:27], [27:55], [30:02]).

Quote:
"People said, you guys are crazy. There's no way you can do this. And we said, no, we're going to do it precisely because everybody thinks we can't." — Annemarie Jacir [27:27]

• Notable moment: Smuggling a British tank replica (built in Nablus) into Jerusalem’s Old City for a scene ([30:02]).

Research Surprises

• Jacir was shocked by the sheer scale and planning of the ethnic cleansing, and especially by the archival accounts of the Zionist Commission’s “Office of Arab Affairs” and British-Zionist coordination ([31:17]).

Quote:
"It really hits you how well planned all of this was... When you really understand, like, the planning and the thought that went into all of it, it's really overwhelming." — Annemarie Jacir [31:17]

Distribution Obstacles

• Jacir details the ongoing suppression of Palestinian cinema: blocked screenings, theater closures, and institutional censorship in the US, Europe, and even Jerusalem itself ([32:27]).
• Palestine 36 was banned in Jerusalem, the projectionist detained despite the film’s pre-state focus.

Quote:
"We encounter those kinds of roadblocks all the time. Palestinian voices have always been blocked... those obstacles are real, and they're very much there. And not just in the United States…" — Annemarie Jacir [32:43]

Memorable Quotes & Notable Moments

• "Nothing in the film, unfortunately, feels something like something of the past to us." — Annemarie Jacir [26:20]
• "The importance of art is that it makes ideas felt. And that's what you did." — Chris Hedges quoting Emma Goldman [34:35]

Relevant Timestamps

• 00:10–05:00: Hedges' detailed historical introduction and Jacir's justification for setting the film in 1936
• 06:30–08:43: Discussing the brutality of British colonial tactics; the real Taggart and his transfer from India
• 10:30–12:20: Archival research inspires cinematic depictions of surveillance and oppression; focus on class tensions
• 16:25–18:25: Discussion of elite illusions about imperial intentions and British manipulation
• 19:15–21:27: On Jewish refugees, coexistence, and the nature of Zionist colonialism
• 22:37–25:14: The Orde Wingate character and Christian Zionism
• 25:36–26:20: Filming human shield scenes in parallel with contemporary news
• 27:27–30:02: Challenges of filming under occupation and during war; creative resilience
• 32:43–34:21: Systemic suppression and censorship of Palestinian cinema

Conclusion

Palestine 36 is presented as both a reclaiming of historical narrative and a powerful artistic achievement, rooted in meticulous research and personal connection. Jacir and Hedges illuminate forgotten or erased aspects of Palestinian history, emphasizing how colonial legacies persist, how resistance takes shape, and the obstacles faced by those seeking to tell these stories. The episode closes with a call to support art that makes the consequences of history felt in the present.