Archive for November 4th, 2013
Story of “This Land is Mine”
The story shared by Israel and Palestine has been told in several stunning films, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen it told like this.
Nina Paley created this brief animated history of the land that was at one time called Israel, Palestine, Canaan and the Levant.
She even created this viewer’s guide to make sense of what’s happening.
Posted by Films For Action this Oct. 7, 2012 a 3 min – Short Film:
I’ve Never Seen the Israel / Palestine Conflict Illustrated More Uniquely Than This
Who’s Killing Who? A Viewer’s Guide
Because you can’t tell the players without a pogrom!
Early Man This generic “cave man” represents the first human settlers in Israel/Canaan/the Levant. Whoever they were.
Canaanite. What did ancient Canaanites look like? I don’t know, so this is based on ancient Sumerian art.
Egyptian. Canaan was located between two huge empires. Egypt controlled it sometimes, and…
Assyrian ….Assyria controlled it other times.
Israelite The “Children of Israel” conquered the shit out of the region, according to bloody and violent Old Testament accounts.
Babylonian. The Baylonians destroyed their temple and took the Hebrews into exile.
Macedonian/Greek. Here comes Alexander the Great, conquering everything!
Greek/Macedonian. No sooner did Alexander conquer everything, than his generals divided it up and fought with each other.
Ptolemaic. Greek descendants of Ptolemy, another of Alexander’s competing generals, ruled Egypt dressed like Egyptian god-kings. (The famous Cleopatra of western mythology and Hollywood was a Ptolemy.)
Seleucid. More Greek-Macedonian legacies of Alexander.
Hebrew Priest. This guy didn’t fight, he just ran the Second Temple re-established by Hebrews in Jerusalem after the Babylonian Exile.
Maccabee. Led by Judah “The Hammer” Maccabee, who fought the Seleucids, saved the Temple, and invented Channukah. Until…
Roman ….the Romans destroyed the Second Temple and absorbed the region into the Roman Empire…
Byzantine ….which split into Eastern and Western Empires. The eastern part was called the Byzantine Empire. I don’t know if “Romans” ever fought “Byzantines” (Eastern Romans) but this is a cartoon.
Arab Caliph Speaking of cartoon, what did an Arab Caliph look like? This was my best guess.
Crusader After Crusaders went a-killin’ in the name of Jesus Christ, they established Crusader states, most notably the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
Mamluk of Egypt.Wikipedia sez, “Over time, mamluks became a powerful military caste in various Muslim societies…In places such as Egypt from the Ayyubid dynasty to the time of Muhammad Ali of Egypt, mamluks were considered to be “true lords”, with social status above freeborn Muslims.[7]” And apparently they controlled Palestine for a while.
Ottoman Turk Did I mention this is a cartoon? Probably no one went to battle looking like this. But big turbans, rich clothing and jewelry seemed to be in vogue among Ottoman Turkish elites, according to paintings I found on the Internet.
Arab A gross generalization of a generic 19-century “Arab”.
British The British formed alliances with Arabs, then occupied Palestine. This cartoon is an oversimplification, and uses this British caricature as a stand-in for Europeans in general.
Palestinian The British occupied this guy’s land, only to leave it to a vast influx of….
European Jew/Zionist Desperate and traumatized survivors of European pogroms and death camps, Jewish Zionist settlers were ready to fight to the death for a place to call home, but…
PLO/Hamas/Hezbollah
….so were the people that lived there. Various militarized resistance movements arose in response to Israel: The Palestinian Liberation Organization, Hamas, and Hezbollah.
State of Israel
Backed by “the West,” especially the US, they got lots of weapons and the only sanctioned nukes in the region.
Guerrilla/Freedom Fighter/Terrorist Sometimes people fight in military uniforms, sometimes they don’t. Creeping up alongside are illicit nukes possibly from Iran or elsewhere in the region. Who’s Next?
and finally…
The Angel of Death The real hero of the Old Testament, and right now too.
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Did a Revolution start Last Night with Russell Brand?
On last night’s edition of the BBC’s Newsnight (Oct 26, 2013), viewers may have witnessed the start of one revolution.
Russell Brand May Have Started a Revolution Last Night
The revolution itself may not be televised.
Actor/comedian/Messiah Russell Brand, in his capacity as guest editor of the New Statesman‘s just-published revolution-themed issue, was invited to explain to Jeremy Paxman why anyone should listen to a man who has never voted in his life.
“I don’t get my authority from this preexisting paradigm which is quite narrow and only serves a few people,” Russell responded. “I look elsewhere for alternatives that might be of service to humanity.”
And with that, the first shots of Russell’s revolutionary interview were fired.
Over the course of the following 10-or-so minutes, Brand and Paxo volleyed back and forth over subjects ranging from political apathy, to corporate greed, to gorgeous beards.
Throughout the interview, Brand repeatedly dodged Paxman’s efforts to trivialize his message — at one point Paxman literally called Brand a “very trivial man” — until finally, even the entrenched newsman appeared to relent against the rushing tide of Brand’s valid arguments.
After Brand reminded Paxman that he cried after learning that his grandma too had been “fucked over” by aristocrats, the Newsnight host was stunned into silence.
“If we can engage that feeling and change things, why wouldn’t we?” Brand crescendo.
“Why is that naive? Why is that not my right because I’m an ‘actor’? I’ve taken the right. I don’t need the right from you. I don’t need the right from anybody. I’m taking it.”
[H/T: Reddit, video via BBC Newsnight]
Harassment of Syrian children in Egypt?
End the harassment of Syrians in Egypt
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Mahmoud is a 9 year old boy whose friends in Egypt have stopped playing with him because he is Syrian.
It’s due to a xenophobic campaign, contributed to by the media and the new government, that is being waged against Syrians in Egypt.
Syrian children are being arrested and students don’t know if they’ll be allowed into schools this year. On top of that, hundreds are being turned away at the airports.
Syrians are being made scapegoats for Egypt’s domestic troubles.
The humiliation and degradation began after the events of June 30.
New laws now demand prior obtained visas from an Egyptian embassy and security checks.
Before June 30, Syrians could easily use Egypt as a safe haven without visa restraints. Along with the new laws, Egyptian authorities have arbitrarily arrested at least 72 men and 9 children including registered asylum seekers and at least 9 people with valid visas or residency permits.
The interim government and the Egyptian authorities must immediately cease using Syrian civilians as pawns in Egypt’s internal politics. Click below to sign the petition and forward to everyone: http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/wqf_ltdt_l_lswryyn_fy_mSr_End_the_harassment_of_Syrians_in_Egypt/?bFAfecb&v=28773
With hope and determination,
Bissan, Mais, Nick, Rewan and the whole Avaaz team
PS: This petition was started by an Avaaz member on our Community Petitions site. It’s quick and easy to start a petition on any issue you care about, click here: http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/start_a_petition/?bgMYedb&v=25121
Adonis Diaries 