Rule of Stone

Jerusalem stone is fundamentally from the city and of it, as it is quarried and chiseled there. The architectural vision that shaped the literal building blocks of “new,” post-1967 Jerusalem was enshrined as law during the British Mandate, molding the city’s appearance while simultaneously becoming an instrument of control and historical appropriation. What seems like an endeavor to preserve the city’s uniform and distinctive character is revealed in the film to be the bedrock of a subtle yet relentless strategy of annexation, control, and dispossession. Through archival footage and interviews with architects, urban planners, and Palestinian Jerusalemites, Danae Elon’s new, incisive, and thought-provoking film tells the riveting story of a city built through erasure, where beauty cloaks violence, and where every hand-cut stone absorbs memory just as it captures the light.