Van der Keuken shot The Palestinians in 1975 in Lebanon, before the outbreak of civil war. The film provides a nuanced look at the issue of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.

“The very crucial difference between The Palestinians and the films that I did before is that with a subject like The Palestinians your moving space is much smaller. In a more pretentious film there is an element of play – the game between the filmmaker and every spectator which is much more in the forefront than the documentary content itself. In The Palestinians the element of play is at a less powerful level than the element of direct speech by the people concerned – and that is a moral choice. It is important to talk of reality in terms of relationships and not just facts,” the Dutch filmmaker told Ciné-Tract.