Stern: The Man, the Gang and the State | Israel-Palestine conflict

National Jewish hero or radical Zionist paramilitary leader? Avraham Stern was the leader of the Stern Gang, one of the Jewish armed groups that fought the British Mandate in Palestine in the 1930s and early ’40s.

This film tells his story through his own son and a range of contemporary historians. It presents both pro- and anti-Zionist sides of a controversial narrative – who Stern was, how he set up and ran the Stern Gang and how he led it in fighting the British administration and Palestinians with the ultimate aim of founding a Jewish state. Some historians believe he may have collaborated with the Nazis and accepted money and weapons in a deal that enabled them to ship large numbers of Jews from Germany to Palestine. Whatever the evidence, this is fascinating insight into a major figure in the Jewish movement that led to the creation of Israel.