IDFA: Rule of Stone - Danae Elon

Jerusalem stone

The story this documentary tells begins with Jerusalem stone, the material legally designated to give the city its special aesthetics. With it, architecture became a weapon in a silent but exceptionally effective process of colonization and dispossession.

Interweaving archival material with interviews with architects, urban planners, and residents , Rule of Stone reveals how urban design and the perception of beauty were co-opted into an invisible war of annexation. After Israel’s 1967 capture of East Jerusalem, Palestinian land was expropriated and Palestinian neighborhoods were restricted, making way for the construction of a modern city.