“Church and State” is a documentary about the State of Israel, which uses sympathy for the victims of the Holocaust to justify victimizing another ethnicity—Palestinians. Israel has created the perfect defense against criticism, the accusation that any who dare to criticize its policies are de facto anti-Semitic, no matter their ethnicity. Israel has thus far gotten away with merging Church and State…with all of the discrimination and oppression this entails.

Our journey begins with Director, Netra Halperin, born in California of a Jewish father and a Christian mother — who both converted to Zen Buddhism. Netra (who got a new name in an ashram in India), while she participated in Passover and Chanukah ceremonies as a child, does not practice the religion of Judaism, but identifies with some of the prominent characteristics of Jews, such as always questioning the status quo and speaking out against injustice.

Then we travel to Palestine and Israel, where we meet the people intimately involved in this horrible struggle. We see the Israeli protection of their race and religion, after having gone through the holocaust—and the Palestinians, living their own, slow-moving Nakba (Disaster).

We show, through intimate human portrayals of both the Palestinians and Jews the urgency of resolving this crisis, which is causing so much suffering. There will never be peace until there is justice.