'Insane, grandiose mission'

On June 7, 1967, the commander of Israel’s Paratrooper Brigade 55, Col. Motta Gur, made a heady declaration to headquarters: “The Temple Mount is in our hands!” The newly released documentary In Our Hands: The Battle for Jerusalem commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Six-Day War, which handed a stunning victory to Israel in a battle between five Arab states and one outnumbered, outgunned fledgling nation.

The film’s title is deliberately and unapologetically pro-Israel: The Temple Mount—a contested, historic site sacred to Jews, Christians, and Muslims—is no longer in the hands of Israel but under an Islamic trust. But during that brief moment when Israel took over the Temple Mount, Jews who for 2,000 years had longed for that event rejoiced and wept, as many still do before the Western Wall.

For viewers who aren’t familiar with the Arab-Israeli conflict, In Our Hands does a decent job mapping out the historical context and explaining why the Six-Day War—an “insane, grandiose mission” for the Israeli Defense Forces, as one veteran put it—is so significant and how it still affects world affairs. What the film doesn’t do well is blend the firsthand interviews, voice-over narration, and dramatic re-enactments into a seamless, creative visual. Instead, it switches back and forth without much transition from documentary to drama performed by nice-looking but amateurish actors.

From the eyes of a Gentile like me, In Our Hands can sometimes seem cheesy. However, I watched this film in a Reform synagogue in Washington, D.C., with about 150 Jews whose theology ranged from Orthodoxy to the liberal Reform Judaism to secularism. I heard delighted laughter at the corny jokes, saw wiping of tears when the film showed (re-enacting) IDF soldiers lamenting and singing in front of the Western Wall. For these viewers, In Our Hands recreated that moment of awe, grief, and euphoria when Israel’s underdog victory proved to the world that the Jewish people had risen from the ashes of unforgettable tragedies.