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Most observers consider the Balfour Declaration and Mandate period of the 1920s as the origin of today’s Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Breaking new ground, 1913: SEEDS OF CONFLICT, a one-hour documentary directed by filmmaker Ben Loeterman, explores the divergent social forces growing in Palestine before World War I, when Arabs and Jews co-existed in harmony as Ottomans, each yearning for a land to call their own.
Interviews
Gur Alroey
Focuses on and has written extensively about the history of Jewish immigration.
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Elizabeth Antebi
Albert Antebi's daughter is a historian and writer in Paris.
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Yuval Ben-Bassat
Considers proto-Zionist-Arab encounters based on research at the Ottoman Archives in Istanbul.
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Etan Bloom
Focuses on Jewish cultural history and is the biographer of Arthur Ruppin.
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Michelle Campos
Historian who explores the late Ottoman Empire and social history of Palestine.
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Amy Dockser Marcus
Principal consultant to the film. Author of Jerusalem 1913: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict; former Jerusalem correspondent for The Wall Street Journal.
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Beshara Doumani
Explores the cultural history of peasants, merchants, artisans and women in late Ottoman Palestine. Read more >
Louis Fishman
Specializes in current Turkish and Israeli-Palestinian affairs and during the late Ottoman period.
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Yaakov Gross
Israeli film historian, archivist and documentary filmmaker.
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Abigail Jacobson
Looks at the social history of urban communities from late Ottoman Palestine to the British Mandate.
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Issam Nassar
Scholar of photography of the Middle East, and the history of Ottoman Jerusalem.
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Ariyeh Saposnik
Historian of Zionism and the construction of national identities and cultures.
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Gershon Shafir
Historical sociologist with a focus on nationalism, ethnicity and human rights.
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Salim Tamari
The “preeminent Palestinian historical sociologist” directs the Institute for Palestine Studies.
Read more >Historical Characters
Albert Antebi was a Jew from Damascus who relocated to Jerusalem in 1896 to became the head of the Alliance Israélite Universelle. He was an educator, a philanthroper and a go-between the Jewish and Arab communities in Palestine.
Read more >Albert Antebi
Ruhi Khalidi was a member of the notable Palestinian Khalidi family, a writer and teacher. He was the nephew of Yusuf Khalidi who had the letter exchange with Herzl in 1890. Following the Yung Turk Revolution in 1908, Ruhi was one of three elected representatives of Jerusalem in the Ottoman Parliament in Istanbul.
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Arthur Ruppin was a Jewish German sociologist and statistician who relocated to Jaffa in 1907 to work for the World Zionist Organization. Ruppin headed the Palestine Office and was in charge of buying land for Jewish Settlement in Palestine.
Read more > Arthur Ruppin
Khalil al-Sakakini was a Palestinian Orthodox Christian. He was the teacher of Wasif Jawhariyyeh among many others. He founded the Constitutional School based on humanist principles and introduced new educational methods. He was also an Arab nationalist who voiced concern over the growing Zionist activity in Palestine.
Read more > Khalil al-Sakakini