I usually post about legal developments related to human rights issues, but today I decided to share a thought about the movie ‘No Other Land’ which is receiving quite a bit of publicity due to its nomination for an Oscar.
I haven’t seen this film, but I think the argument that showing a people’s suffering can cause hate toward the party causing the suffering is not a valid reason for not showing it…should we not have Holocaust films because they spread hatred for Germans? No. Should we not have films depicting American racism towards African Americans? No. People are entitled to share their story of suffering - and should. If it makes another group look bad, that is because that group did something bad.
If the viewer forms extreme opinions based on such media, that is the fault of the viewer and our popular culture of forming extreme opinions based on limited info. We shouldn’t try to minimize that effect by not displaying a people’s story.
What do you think of movies like "Birth of a Nation"? It depicted black Americans as vicious animals whose freedom would destroy civil society. It is one of the most celebrated films ever made, and was shown at the White House. I'm not saying "In No Other Land" should not be shown. I'm just saying that it has an agenda, and we need to be very aware of that agenda during a time when anti-Jewish hatred has risen to extremely high levels.
You so conveniently left out the part why Black Americans were being depicted as”savages” in ‘Birth of a Nation’ and that is that they were SLAVES revolting. So was ‘Birth of a Nation’ anti-slave master propaganda or anti-slave and to which do YOU find yourself empathizing with. As you so shamelessly find yourself some how calling the film that was made Palestinian and Israeli in tandem anti-Jewish or do you just spend your entire day screaming your tropes from the comfort of your (still intact) home online?
I haven’t seen that film. I think what’s hard about analyzing movies is that we’d have to all agree on what’s propaganda vs history vs someone’s story, etc…. Without going down that rabbit hole of gray areas, I think we all could accept that people should be entitled to make films without bearing the responsibility of explaining all the nuances/historical context of their time. Again, it places responsibility on the consumer of the media to do their own research on other narratives - which unfortunately our general public is not trained to do.
But if everyone making a movie about their experience was burdened with describing all other narratives surrounding their context…I don’t think we’d have a lot of movies. And I don’t think it’s right to bear that responsibility alone.
My takeaway is - Let people tell their story. And let other people tell their story too.
Let the viewer have access to all stories and discourse.
I think I would have less of a problem if this were a documentary, or at least closely based on a true story, but as far as I can tell it isn't, it is fiction which just generally uses the same types/tropes.
It is worse than I thought because it is presented like a documentary but actually does not document truth or historical events in full, Rather it presents a proven false narrative, without noting that that is what is happening. So, propaganda, in the sense of promoting something that is known to be false in order to get people to react emotionally.
I think the problem with a film like No Other Land is that it shows only one slice of life in the West Bank and there are many slices - I have been there often enough to know. It feeds a stereotype which has become the global raison d’etre for every Social Justice Warrior. And it entrenches the idea of “if only Israel gave up the land, withdrew the military occupation etc, all would be well”. We all know now that this simplification doesn’t work. Israel gave land and got war in return, it takes land and also gets war in return.
I haven’t seen the film yet but it won’t help garner support for the (justified) war against Hamas that’s for sure. The West Bank is a difficult and complex landscape.
As someone else mentioned films about Germany… as someone with part German ancestry, I would have never expected any country to not show films about the Nazis and / or not feel ugly feelings about Germans. However, even there you could cast a wider lens, allow also Germans to grieve their losses and shine a light on the brutal defeat at the end that resulted in hundred thousands of rapes and murder and pillaging beyond belief (never talked about by the victors of course).
We are constantly bombarded by the media and influenced by holliwood when it comes to movies and the way it can influence our point of view. We need to remember that there is more to what we see and be more aware of it. You are writing a very important view that we all need to consider, specially when we are far from the conflict. Thanks for bringing awareness.
This is a deeply unserious argument, the kind that might appear to people in the echo chamber but is easy to dismantle. Would you say the same about Palestinian abuses? Of course not - you (correctly) want them to be spread as widely as possible, even though we know that Islamophobia (for want of a better word) increases when there are increases in Islamic terrorism. So this is special pleading for Israel, when the focus of your ire should be on the human rights abuses themselves.
I for one would not like to see a fictional movie which depicts most Muslims as terrorists except maybe one sympathetic one-- I don't think it would help anyone understand anything, except the creator's perceptions and feelings expressed through fiction.
People have indeed objected to the depiction of all / most Arabs / Muslims as violent misogynistic terrorists--despite these problems being real in the world--precisely because it defames an entire group, and deepens prejudices.
The bottom line: movies don't win wars. Despite alleged public opinion against Israel, they are defeating/have defeated Hamas. I would much rather be an Israeli having one-sided nasty movies made about me, than a Palestinian with all the sympathy of the UN.
I won't waste my time on this film. It sounds like propaganda. But it should be seen by those who want to see it. If they use the film to justify their own hatred, that's on them.
I thank the author for pointing out the Chafetz Chaim's discussion of "lashon hara," but I don't think it applies to art, even commercial art, which are products of the imagination, even if fact-based. They distort on purpose to make a point.
It does apply to the online army of anti-Israel slanderers, who do take real instances of abuse to bolster their stacked case against Israel.
Without freedom of expression humanity suffers. Freedom of expression is just that. The answer to "No Other Land" is a good movie about Israel's dilemmas. And to stop the abuses.
I haven’t seen this film, but I think the argument that showing a people’s suffering can cause hate toward the party causing the suffering is not a valid reason for not showing it…should we not have Holocaust films because they spread hatred for Germans? No. Should we not have films depicting American racism towards African Americans? No. People are entitled to share their story of suffering - and should. If it makes another group look bad, that is because that group did something bad.
If the viewer forms extreme opinions based on such media, that is the fault of the viewer and our popular culture of forming extreme opinions based on limited info. We shouldn’t try to minimize that effect by not displaying a people’s story.
What do you think of movies like "Birth of a Nation"? It depicted black Americans as vicious animals whose freedom would destroy civil society. It is one of the most celebrated films ever made, and was shown at the White House. I'm not saying "In No Other Land" should not be shown. I'm just saying that it has an agenda, and we need to be very aware of that agenda during a time when anti-Jewish hatred has risen to extremely high levels.
You so conveniently left out the part why Black Americans were being depicted as”savages” in ‘Birth of a Nation’ and that is that they were SLAVES revolting. So was ‘Birth of a Nation’ anti-slave master propaganda or anti-slave and to which do YOU find yourself empathizing with. As you so shamelessly find yourself some how calling the film that was made Palestinian and Israeli in tandem anti-Jewish or do you just spend your entire day screaming your tropes from the comfort of your (still intact) home online?
I haven’t seen that film. I think what’s hard about analyzing movies is that we’d have to all agree on what’s propaganda vs history vs someone’s story, etc…. Without going down that rabbit hole of gray areas, I think we all could accept that people should be entitled to make films without bearing the responsibility of explaining all the nuances/historical context of their time. Again, it places responsibility on the consumer of the media to do their own research on other narratives - which unfortunately our general public is not trained to do.
But if everyone making a movie about their experience was burdened with describing all other narratives surrounding their context…I don’t think we’d have a lot of movies. And I don’t think it’s right to bear that responsibility alone.
My takeaway is - Let people tell their story. And let other people tell their story too.
Let the viewer have access to all stories and discourse.
That is all we can really do.
I think I would have less of a problem if this were a documentary, or at least closely based on a true story, but as far as I can tell it isn't, it is fiction which just generally uses the same types/tropes.
Ivy, thanks for pointing that out - I could see that being problematic. Assumed this film was all based on a true story, but I haven’t seen it.
Showing a divisive fictional story is definitely not helpful in these times…
So, I just read this post:
https://open.substack.com/pub/elderofziyon/p/the-lies-behind-oscar-winner-no-other?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=3huab
It is worse than I thought because it is presented like a documentary but actually does not document truth or historical events in full, Rather it presents a proven false narrative, without noting that that is what is happening. So, propaganda, in the sense of promoting something that is known to be false in order to get people to react emotionally.
I think the problem with a film like No Other Land is that it shows only one slice of life in the West Bank and there are many slices - I have been there often enough to know. It feeds a stereotype which has become the global raison d’etre for every Social Justice Warrior. And it entrenches the idea of “if only Israel gave up the land, withdrew the military occupation etc, all would be well”. We all know now that this simplification doesn’t work. Israel gave land and got war in return, it takes land and also gets war in return.
I haven’t seen the film yet but it won’t help garner support for the (justified) war against Hamas that’s for sure. The West Bank is a difficult and complex landscape.
As someone else mentioned films about Germany… as someone with part German ancestry, I would have never expected any country to not show films about the Nazis and / or not feel ugly feelings about Germans. However, even there you could cast a wider lens, allow also Germans to grieve their losses and shine a light on the brutal defeat at the end that resulted in hundred thousands of rapes and murder and pillaging beyond belief (never talked about by the victors of course).
We are constantly bombarded by the media and influenced by holliwood when it comes to movies and the way it can influence our point of view. We need to remember that there is more to what we see and be more aware of it. You are writing a very important view that we all need to consider, specially when we are far from the conflict. Thanks for bringing awareness.
This is a deeply unserious argument, the kind that might appear to people in the echo chamber but is easy to dismantle. Would you say the same about Palestinian abuses? Of course not - you (correctly) want them to be spread as widely as possible, even though we know that Islamophobia (for want of a better word) increases when there are increases in Islamic terrorism. So this is special pleading for Israel, when the focus of your ire should be on the human rights abuses themselves.
I for one would not like to see a fictional movie which depicts most Muslims as terrorists except maybe one sympathetic one-- I don't think it would help anyone understand anything, except the creator's perceptions and feelings expressed through fiction.
People have indeed objected to the depiction of all / most Arabs / Muslims as violent misogynistic terrorists--despite these problems being real in the world--precisely because it defames an entire group, and deepens prejudices.
The bottom line: movies don't win wars. Despite alleged public opinion against Israel, they are defeating/have defeated Hamas. I would much rather be an Israeli having one-sided nasty movies made about me, than a Palestinian with all the sympathy of the UN.
I won't waste my time on this film. It sounds like propaganda. But it should be seen by those who want to see it. If they use the film to justify their own hatred, that's on them.
This is a very weak argument. The proper way to engage with anti-Israel/anti-Jew propaganda is to debunk it, call out the lies, and share the truth.
Instead you complain about a film that you find unpleasant while also implying that its claims are true.
Additional key context: https://substack.com/@reubensalsa/note/c-97929529?r=5dvtvk
This is what constructive criticism and context looks like: https://open.substack.com/pub/futureofjewish/p/the-award-for-best-antisemitic-documentary
I thank the author for pointing out the Chafetz Chaim's discussion of "lashon hara," but I don't think it applies to art, even commercial art, which are products of the imagination, even if fact-based. They distort on purpose to make a point.
It does apply to the online army of anti-Israel slanderers, who do take real instances of abuse to bolster their stacked case against Israel.
Without freedom of expression humanity suffers. Freedom of expression is just that. The answer to "No Other Land" is a good movie about Israel's dilemmas. And to stop the abuses.