Promised Land

Mash-up documentary on the history of the Middle East conflict around the region of Palestine. Inspired by 2. Mose (Exodus), Kapitel 23, 20 -33.

According to the Zionist understanding, Israel describes itself as the “state of the Jewish people”. This people has suffered unbelievably from thousands of years of persecution, not least the extermination of millions of Jewish people by the Nazis.

The more I have learned over time about the lives of Palestinian people in Israel itself, in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, the more often I have asked myself (and this even before October 7, 2023, Hamas' attack on Israel):

How can a people who have suffered immensely themselves throughout their history be in a position to inflict oppression, deprivation and deprivation of basic human rights on another people?

The enormity of the acts of war that the Israeli government and its military claim to have understood as a “response” to the Hamas attack led me to look for explanations in the Old Testament of the Bible and the Jewish Torah in particular. There you can find passages that can be understood in a frighteningly clear way as instructions for the conquest of the whole of Palestine and the expulsion of the Palestinians:

Excerpts from Genesis chapter 23, there especially verses 20-33. The texts accordingly accompany some sequences in my video on the history of Palestine and the Jews as well as on the war that has been raging between Hamas and Israel since October 7, 2023.

  • Jürgen Baums
    Director
  • Jürgen Baums
    Writer
  • Jürgen Baums
    Producer
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Experimental, Short
  • Runtime:
    23 minutes 41 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    July 24, 2024
  • Production Budget:
    0 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Germany
  • Language:
    English
  • Film Color:
    Black & White and Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
  • Brussels Capital Film Festival
    Brussels Capital Film Festival
    Belgium
    December 1, 2024
    Award Winner: Best Short Documentary
  • Power24 International Film Festival
    Durban
    Australia
    August 23, 2024
    Award Winner: Best Documentary Film
  • Spinning Reels Awards
    Kolkata, West Bengal
    India
    January 20, 2026
    January 21, 2026
    Award Winner: Best Documentary Films
  • Krimson Horyzon International Film Festival
    Kolkata, West Bengal
    India
    January 28, 2026
    Award Winner: Best Documentary Film
  • Cine Sepia Reels Carnival
    Kolkata, West Bengal 700137
    India
    December 16, 2025
    Award Winner: Best Documentary Films
  • Indie Cine Tube Awards
    Kolkata, West Bengal 700137
    India
    August 30, 2025
    Award Winner: Best Documentary Films (Any ength)
Director Biography - Jürgen Baums

Design studies at the Fachhochschule Niederrhein, Krefeld 1970 to 1974. Graduated as Dipl. Designer.

Since 1978 self-employed as communications consultant and web designer with own agency and as freelancer.

Videomaker (Mashup) since 2021.

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Director Statement

“We won’t rest until we have justice, until all people, Israelis and Palestinians, between the river and the sea can live in peaceful liberty,”

Andy McDonald, Labour MP (Oct. 2023).