I saw another film about Palestine on Sunday, this time at Project Hope with the other international volunteers. It was aimed at an American audience, providing an alternative (or more accurate) history of Palestine and it didn’t shy away from pointing the finger at both the UK and the US for their roles in creating or maintaining the conflict in Palestine, particularly in their support of the Zionist movement.
Now I’m wary of letting my blog turn into a political rant, and if anyone is interested in learning more about Palestine there are many far more informed political commentators out there than myself, but it did confirm to me that there is a story simply not being told in the West.
However, informative though this film was, there were a couple of things that didn't set well with me. The film covered the persecution of Palestinian Christians and the tragic death, at the hands of the Israelis, of a young American activist. Now, both of these subjects are unsettling and are important aspects in telling “the whole story”, but by focusing more on these events than on others, it gave the impression that the persecution of Christians and death of Americans is in some way more significant than the plight of Muslims and the commonplace murder of the people of Palestine.
Not sure what else to say about that. Rant over.
3 comments:
Presumably the words 'Christian' and 'American' are meant to make 'the west' interested in the conflict in as much as they can relate to those terms, and is 'marketing' not everything??!
But there can surely be no real attempt at understanding without a holistic approach, appreciating all the facts from the prespective of all the people...
Yes, I suppose you have to know you're audience. It still annoys me, though. It's like in the news back home where if there's an earthquake in Peru the first thing they'll mention is how many Brits are hurt. Sadly, that's all a lot of viewers will want to know.
It's all about 'spin', and it makes you very suspicious about the motivation for certain kinds of reporting and information-dissemination. Keep looking for the whole picture ... with eyes open and a heart that's in the right place.
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