Two new English-language documentaries are turning their cameras on Israel’s mass protest movements, from the demonstrations against the government’s judicial overhaul to the weekly rallies demanding a hostage deal after the bloody Hamas invasion of October 7, 2023.

Together, the films present the protests as a defining feature of Israeli life for the last three and a half years, and as a symbol of the strength of the country’s civil society.

Paula Kweskin’s “In Protest” focuses on Israel’s women-led protest movement, which began before October 7 but took on new urgency after the Hamas onslaught and ensuing war in Gaza, as reports emerged of sexual violence perpetrated by terrorists during the attack and against hostages held in the Strip.

Kweskin is an American-born human rights lawyer turned documentary filmmaker who founded The 49%, a nonprofit that uses film and media to spotlight women’s rights issues.

For this film, she and filmmaking partner Carly Fogel already had begun looking at women-led protest movements worldwide when Kweskin realized that a similar movement was taking shape in Israel, including in her hometown of Ra’anana.

The 52-minute film ended up homing in on Moran Zer Katzenstein, best known as the founder of Bonot Alternativa, or “building an alternative,” a women-led protest movement that rose to prominence during the 2023 anti-government demonstrations.

The group drew particular attention for its “handmaid protests,” in which women wore red robes and white caps like the characters from Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel “The Handmaid’s Tale,” to protest violence against women and attacks on women’s rights.

Zer Katzenstein and Bonot Alternativa later helped lead calls to recognize the sexual violence committed against Israeli women by Hamas on October 7, including by placing full-page ads in The New York Times.

Zer Katzenstein also presented evidence about the sexual violence at a........

© The Times of Israel