It is time to set the record straight on Israel’s apartheid policy and genocide against Palestinians and to confront the enemies of truth.
The decades-long extermination of Palestinians, their Arab, Islamic and Christian cultures would not have been possible had the people in the US and Europe had access to objective media reports and facts about the situation in Palestine and Israel.
In reverse, European and US citizens have tolerated their governments complicity with Israeli crimes against Palestinians because billions are spent on a propaganda industry that positions Arabs as villains and sub-human while Israelis, Jews and indeed US and European citizens are positioned as the noble victims.
An Israeli bulldozer demolishes a Palestinian house in East al-Quds
Dr. Shaheen compares Hollywood’s positioning of Arabs with Nazi Germany’s anti-Jewish propaganda. He analyzed more than one thousand Hollywood movies from the oldest in the archives up to the latest Blockbusters in 2001. Nearly 25 percent of all Hollywood movies demean Arabs, concluded Shaheen.
The Disney Classic “Aladdin,” that has been watched by hundreds of millions of people worldwide is recycling almost all of the stereotypes used to demean Arabs. It is particularly effective propaganda because it is watched by children and because adults have their guards down when they watch a kid’s cartoon. The theme song of Aladdin is setting the Arabland scene:
“Where they cut off your ear if they don’t like your face, it’s barbaric, but hey, … it’s home.”
People worldwide, especially children, were coached into believing that Arabland is a place where innocent women have their hands amputated for forgetting to pay at a bazaar. Other movies describe Arabs as super-rich, imbecilic, sex-addicted tyrants who mistreat women, and most importantly white American women who are kidnapped and auctioned off.
Meanwhile, there is a steady stream of Hollywood productions that portray the suffering of the European Jews during the 1930s – 40s. No movie has ever been made about the 25,000 Germans who were burned to death during the fire-bombing of Dresden or the at least 17,500 who were burned to death during the firebombing of Pforzheim.
Dr. Jack Shaheen documents that the dehumanizing of Arabs began after World War II and the establishment of the Israeli regime. It increased significantly during the Arab oil embargo in the early seventies.
The Hollywood entertainment industry and corporate Western mainstream media establish the skeleton for a Western consensus reality that deprives Arabs of their culture, identity and most of all, their humanity. Once an enemy has been deprived of his humanity, there is no limit to the outrages that will be tolerated by the people.
Nazi Germany succeeded at likening Jews to rats. Hollywood is using exactly the same strategy. The only difference is that it has become more sophisticated, more pervasive and more persuasive. Propaganda explains why the Jewish suffering during World War II is perceived as legitimate while the suffering of Palestinians is ignored.
Human beings have an innate resistance against taking the life of another human being. As long as we don’t speak in terms of psycho-pathology, it takes months of rigorous military training before a person can become a soldier and months more to train a sniper who aims and shoots to kill without a doubt.
Tear down the stage set for Arabland and you will be surprised how different the world looks.
The occupation of Palestine is an illegal military occupation. Settlements and outposts are illegal on occupied Palestinian territories. The organized armed forces of Palestinian factions are, under the provisions of the Geneva Conventions and Hague Conventions, legally-formed military forces which resist an illegal military occupation.
The 2004 bombing of Gaza was the illegal terror bombing of densely populated civilian territories. It was launched without a formal declaration of war and approval from the UN Security Council and thus a war crime, no matter how much the one and the other report attempts to cover-up that fact.
The euphemism “targeted assassination” covers the fact that Israel and the United States engage in premeditated homicide.
The alleged unique suffering of the Jewish people omits legitimate Palestinian suffering. It also omits the fact that forced labor in the former Belgian colony Congo contributed to the death of about 20 percent of the colony’s population.
There are two common denominators for the suffering of European Jews, Palestinians, the Congolese in the former Belgian colony and those butchered and maimed in, for example, Rwanda.
The first common denominator is innocenticide; that is, the inflicting of suffering on millions of innocent people.
The second common denominator is that none of the above would have been possible without first depriving the victims of their humanity.
On Friday morning, June 6, 2014, Israeli police stormed the offices and studios of the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation (PBC) in occupied East al-Quds (Jerusalem). The PBC stated that police raided the TV channel’s offices and studios and arrested “Good Morning Jerusalem” director Nader Bebers, Pal Media Coordinator Ashfar Shweiki, and the show’s guest Ala’ al-Haddad at gunpoint.
Al-Haddad is a member of the Jerusalem section of the Committee of Palestinian Detainees. All three were reportedly released after several hours of questioning without being offered legal representation.
Israeli media reported that the show incited violence while Jerusalem police falsely claims that the PBC does not have a license to broadcast. The raid took place against the backdrop of a weeks-long hunger strike of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons.
The incident sends a clear message. Those behind the propaganda, the denigration, and the dehumanization of Arabland are afraid of the truth. They will go to any lengths to oppress it. The challenge is to go to any lengths to deconstruct the stage set for Arabland; to show the true face of Palestine and the true face of Zionism. It is time to set the record straight. Silence is complicity.
CL/HJL
Dr. Christof Lehmann is the founder and editor of nsnbc international. He is a psychologist and independent political consultant on conflict, conflict resolution related issues. His work with traumatized victims of conflict has led him to also pursue the work as political consultant. He is a lifelong activist for peace and justice, human rights, Palestinians rights to self-determination in Palestine, and he is working on the establishment of international institutions for the prosecution of all war crimes, also those committed by privileged nations- In 2011 he retired from clinical and most advisory work and focuses on editing nsnbc international since 2013.
More articles by Dr. Lehmann.
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