Lemon Tree

By the end of Lemon Tree, Palestinian widow Salma's beloved lemon grove has been reduced to a shadow of it's former glory, while her neighbour the Israeli Defence Minister, now has an enormous wall for a view. Noone has won despite the protracted court battle and the co-option of the dispute for political point scoring. It's a telling allegory for the Palestinian-Israeli problem.
The Secret Service decide the grove is a danger to security, despite Salma's protestations that in 40 years no terrorist has attacked from there. She fights this decree not merely because of economic reasons (it's her only source of income apart from what her emigre son can send) but because it's inextricably associated with memories of her father. The law doesn't understand this emotional bond. As every Israeli says, she's been offered compensation (unusual in itself), so what's the problem? The Defence Minister even has the nerve to bemoan the uprooting of Palestinian olive groves elsewhere. The arrogance of the Israeli occupiers is reflected in both the letter in Hebrew sent to Salma (she doesn't speak or read the language), and in the banning of Salma from her own lemon grove (the Defence Minister doesn't hesitate to sent his staff into the grove to pick lemons when they are needed for a party)
Nor does Salma find much sympathy from her own community. She's first of all told there's nothing she can do to fight the order and then reminded that Palestinians don't accept compensation, in effect sentencing her to a life of poverty. Later pressure is exerted because of suspicions about her relationship with the young lawyer who accepts her case. It's no coincidence that Ziad has lived abroad as he's considerably more open-minded than his compatriots. However, as he says later, only American films have happy endings. Their relationship can never be accepted (he cannily becomes engaged to a Minister's daughter and one suspects will never see the daughter that he left behind in Moscow again) and the Israeli state can't be defeated in court. You do sense, though, that Salma has found an inner strength she didn't realize she possessed, while the put-upon Defence Minister's wife summons up the courage to leave him. Although the two women never talk, there's a tenuous bond between them centred on the dispute over the grove. In another place, they might actually get along quite well. The tragedy is that on the West Bank they don't stand a chance.