The Palestine Exception (2026)

Movie review: The Palestine Exception

The Palestine Exception is a film from 2026. It is catalogued under Documentary.

Story

After years of right-wing assaults on higher education, attacks took a new form in 2023 and 2024 that has been described as the new McCarthyism. As students across the country organize protests against Israel's war on Gaza, decades-long taboos in academia around criticism of Israel-the "Palestine exception"-are shattered. This film features professors and students as they join calls for a ceasefire and divestment from companies that do business with Israel and face waves of crackdown from administrators, the media, the police and politicians. Scholars from diverse disciplines explain what is at stake in these protests and why so many young people identify with the Palestinian cause. The documentary unfolds as a story of college campuses as sites of both rebellion and repression, places where personal and collective histories converge in unexpected ways.

Audience reaction

TMDB records an audience rating of 0.0/10.

Production

Release date: January 28, 2026 · Runtime: 70 minutes · Original language: English

Official trailer

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Cast

E

Ellen Schrecker

J

Jennifer GabouryJudith Butler

P

Premilla Nadasen

S

Saree Makdisi

S

Sophie Smith

T

Ted Khoury