In an investigation of the way in which memory is used for political purposes Sivan works with the idea of an archive common to victims and perpetrators – in this case Palestinians and Israelis. His films include Slaves of Memory (1991); The Specialist (1999), using footage from the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem; Route 181 – fragments of a journey in Palestine-Israel (2003); Jaffa, the Orange’s Clockwork (2009). His powerful work has drawn accusations of all kinds and even been subject to a court hearing.

'In the Israeli case … What is surprising is to notice to what extent the analogy with the Nazi genocide existed already during the 1948 event – it was only three years after the end of the Second World War. It throws a completely new light on the myth … that memory can be a vaccine against future crimes.'

Eyal Sivan is a film-maker, a writer and a research professor at the University of East London.