The New Documentary Featuring Golda Meir’s Off-the-Record Interview

“Golda” ripples – The film is getting a wide viewing in Israel. Most remarkable, Israeli Black Panthers Reuven Abargel writing in Haaretz on June 29th, 2019. Excerpt translated by “Golda” co-producer Udi Nir:

Only after watching the film about Golda Meir, I could, for the first time, get to know the story of her life.

“Golda,” getting into the details of her life, pushed everything aside, made me forget the unpleasant hours I spent in her office back then. My heart ached when she spoke of her deprived childhood in Russia, with her mother and sister, after her father left them for the U.S. When she spoke of the empty stomach, harsh conditions, and persecutions by the gentiles. 

As the film progressed, I saw an ill woman [she suffered from cancer], going through painful medical procedures with very little time to sleep. I saw how she carries on her small shoulders the corrupted Mapai Party, the sectorial sectarian protests, the Yom Kippur War, the War of attrition and the Agranat Commission [on the Israel Defense Force failings before the Yom Kippur War].

I watched and asked myself how a fragile, sick woman, with childhood traumas, manages to push this broken wagon, with all the generals around her undermining her. Suddenly she seemed alone in the field, with a pack of wolves surrounding her, lurking in wait for the prey. Towards the end of the film I told myself that if I knew then, when I met her for three hours, what I see now in this film – that meeting would have looked completely different. 

“Golda” made clear to me that difference between the Ashkenazi and Mizrahi cultures, and the prism of all the Mapai leaders. Amongst them all, Golda Meir was the most human. If she would stand next to me after the film ended, I would have approached her, congratulated her and wished her good health. After all, we are all human beings.