I envisioned This Land Is Mine as the last scene of my potential-possible-maybe- feature film, Seder-Masochism, but it’s the first (and so far only) scene I’ve animated. As the Bible says, “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
This Land Is Mine from Nina Paley on Vimeo.
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
Then 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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The british guy is Graham Chapman, right? ha. I Love it.
The IDF should have M-16s since America supports Israel while the USSR funded the terrorists and Jihadists. Oh and Judea is Jewish and Kind David lives forever. Also the Haredim has never fought for Israel. If want to show the Irgun you should show them in street clothes with Stars of David. Also where is Abraham and G-d?
Love it! But one thing is weird: why do you say the British occupied the Palestinian’s land? Surely if this video shows one thing, it’s that the land belongs to no one, and no one can claim it was historically his.
Its also possible that Israel might attack Iran or some other nation in the region that turns out to already have nukes and than they decide to nuke Israel In self defense and the Israeli military launches a counter nuclear strike. Truth is, if a nuclear war were to start in the Middle East or anywhere, we don’t know who would be the one to start it. Its only a guess at this point, which is really scary.
Excellent. However, you missed the Mongols. That’s OK, nobody actually misses them.
Great video.
Are you concerned about possible backlash over this?
Sad I have to ask, but unfortunately it seems to be the climate these days.
Hi Nina!
A great movie! This movie nailed it. The only one that can really claim this land his own, historically justified, is the Angel of Death.
This truth is so simple I will never get why so many people can’t see it.
All that would be necessary is just a tiny tiny bit of a critically brain mass.
Just a tiny bit of objective thinking.
I don’t mean to be arrogant, I am from a continent (Europe) that belonged to the Angel of Death all ages till 1949.
I am lucky to be born in a time, man kind claimed Europe back from that angel.
If it is possible for a continent with so many nations to dispel that angel, it should be possible for a smaller region with less countries too.
So my hope is that the people from the middle east don’t “need” two brutal wars to see the truth like we Europeans needed.
Maybe some people switch on their brains and watch this movie.
And back to your movie …
I love the drawings, animations and the song. And of course the idea behind this movie.
Great work!
“The real hero of the Old Testament”, “bloody and violent Old Testament”…? I wonder which side are you… Probably by the side of The Angel of Death himself. If you really bothered to check the subject you would know that the religious Jews as you tried to put it in Figure are not the ones that held the sword. Historical distortion. this is what i have to say to you.
×’××•× ×™
Excellent!
Fantastic, lovely and hilarious video highlighting the absurdity of Israel.
Is it possible the video could be captioned or subtitle for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing? I would appreciate it, and so would my friends. 🙂 And I am sure foreigners whose spoken English is not as strong as their written English would love this clip too.
Hey Nina,
I *love* it. You are *such* an artist (as always :). The art stylings of the human figures remind me very much of the old Bellerophon Books historical coloring books.
Oodles of toodles,
Alexis
You are a genius.
Its great and funny art !
but please,may I ask,as Israeli…
Why you chose to show the time period of 1917-1948 with
Ultra Orthodox typical\stereotypical Jew with guns wining over primitive poor Arabs with knifes ?
there is any reason (political) for that ? or hidden message ?
here some info about this time :
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandatory_Palestine
Anyway thanks a lot for your piece of art, well done and keep the good work.
P.S :
I less care that we the Israelis holding AK47 instead of m16 or Tavor 🙂
big ups! this really opened a new perspective about all the shit going on there to me.
This is great. The god-believers will be up in arms no doubt, but maybe this will get through to a few of them?
Reality is unique – there is only one, and it is the same in all countries, and all cultures. Theism, like fairyism, and unicornism, and astrology, and the like, can be what ever you want them to be. Pick your favorite, or change mid-stream – once you chose to abandon reality and pursue fantasy, it really doesn’t matter which you choose, so pick the one you like best!
(but please keep it to yourself and stop killing people for your private beliefs!)
The IDF absolutely used the AK-47. The Israelis captured large stockpiles of them from defeated Arab armies and started issuing them to their own infantry units. In fact there was a famous Life magazine cover photo from the Six-Day War that shows an Israeli soldier carrying one.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Tim_Orrock/IDF/Israeli_Soldier_in_Suez_Canal_Life.jpg
Also when I was in the US Army back in the 1980s, I spent some time in the Sinai and saw Israeli border troops, the Magav, carrying AK-47s. So they were in use for quite some time.
Whew! Thanks for finding that Colin – saves me some work. 🙂
Great video.
I live in Israel, and I don’t see what the fuss is about… there’s horrible humidity.
I liked that you gave the Israeli soldiers chest hair. Nice touch.
Great interpretation of that particular geographical area’s history. Congratulations.
dear NINA (and truth seekers),
MOST is Correct BUT!…with all due respect, all other nations/people have their own origin land, like greece or egypt or whatever. some were emipers who conquered ISRAEL other were nomads.
THE JEWS HAD, HAVE AND ALLWAYS WILL HAVE ONLY 1 LAND! – THE PROMISED LAND! THE ARABS HAVE 22, THE MUSLIMS HAVE 50.
PLEASE NOTE THAT THE PALESTINIANS ARE A FAKE MADE-UP PEOPLE! THEY ARE INFACT ARABS WHO SETTLED IN PALESTINE (A NAME GIVEN TO ISRAEL BY THE ROMAN EMPIRE AFTER TAKING IT AWAY FROM THE JEWS).
I SUGGEST YOU RESEARCH THIS ISSUE, THEN YOU WILL FIND OUT THAT B4 1948 THE ARABS (JORDANIAN, EGYPTIAN, TURK AAND OTHERS) WHO LIVED IN ISRAEL AND CAME TO THE LAND OF ISRAEL UNDER THE OTTOMAN AND BRITISH EMPIRES DID NOT CALL THEMSELVES “PALESTINIANS” THEY WERE ARABS. ONLY AFTER THE JEWS RETURNED (FOR THE 3RD) TIME TO THEIR PROMISED LAND, HAD THE ARABS STARTED TO THINK HOW TO STEALL THE LAND AGAIN, ON TOP OF THE 22 ARAB NATIONS THEY ALREADY HAVE.
SO WHAT DID THEY DO?
FIRST INGAGED IN A HUGE WAR (5 ARAB ARMIES – NON OF THEM WERE OF ANY COUNRTY KNOWN AS PALESTINE) AND THEN THEY SAID, “WELL WE CAN NOT START KILLING THE JEWS WHO JUST BARELY SURVIVED THE HOLOCAUST (IT WOULD LOOK VERY BAD IF 500 MILION ARABS WILL FINISH WHAT HITLER HAD BEGAN, AND KILL AGAIN THE FEW POOR JEWS AFTER 6 MILION HAVE BEEN ALREADY MURDERED), SO…..LETS SAY THAT THE “PALESTINIANS” (SOME 200,000 ARAB NOMADS WHICH INFACT WERE ALL KINDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLE, LIKE TURKS, JEWS, GREEK, DIFFERENT ARABS ETC’) ARE THE NATIVES AND THE HORRIBLE JEWS STOLE THEIR LAND.
please read more about this and UPDATE YOUR GREAT VIDEO ACCORDING TO HISTORY AND NOT ACCORDING TO MUSLIM PROPOGANDA.
ishiko tadmouri and joan peaters have wrote alot about this.
THIS THING IS A HUGE ARAB-MUSLIM PROPOGANDA!!!
JUST ASK YOURSELF THIS ABOUT THE SO CALLED ARAB PALESTINIAN STATE/STOLEN LAND:
1. When was it founded and by whom?
2. What were its borders?
3. What was its capital?
4. What were its major cities?
5. What constituted the basis of its economy?
6. What was its form of government?
7. Can you name at least one Palestinian leader before Arafat?
8. Was Palestine ever recognized by a country whose existence, at that time or now, leaves no room for interpretation?
9. What was the language of the country of Palestine ?
10. What was the prevalent religion of the country of Palestine ?
11. What was the name of its currency?
Choose any date in history and tell what was the approximate exchange rate of the Palestinian monetary unit against the US dollar, German mark, GB pound, Japanese yen, or Chinese Yuan on that date.
12. And, finally, since there is no such country today, what caused its demise and when did it occur?
MOST SHOCKING IS THE FACT THAT NO SO CALLED ARAB PALESTINIAN, WAS SCREAMING “OCCUPATION” WHEN GB OR JORDAN OR TURKS HAD CONTROL OVER THIS LAND (OR A PART OF IT).
BEST WISHES
And here is the least sarcastic question of all: If the people you mistakenly call “Palestinians” are anything but generic Arabs collected from all over — or thrown out of — the Arab world, if they really have a genuine ethnic identity that gives them right for self-determination, why did they never try to become independent until Arabs suffered their devastating defeat in the Six Day War?
The truth should be obvious to everyone who wants to know it. Arab countries have never abandoned the dream of destroying Israel ; they still cherish it today. Having time and again failed to achieve their evil goal with military means, they decided to fight Israel by proxy. For that purpose, they created a terrorist organization, cynically called it “the Palestinian people” and installed it in Gaza , Judea, and Samaria . How else can you explain the refusal by Jordan and Egypt to unconditionally accept back the “West Bank” and Gaza , respectively?
The fact is, Arabs populating Gaza, Judea, and Samaria have much less claim to nationhood than that Indian tribe that successfully emerged in Connecticut with the purpose of starting a tax-exempt casino: at least that tribe had a constructive goal that motivated them. The so-called “Palestinians” have only one motivation: the destruction of Israel, and in my book that is not sufficient to consider them a nation” — or anything else except what they really are: a terrorist organization that will one day be dismantled.
In fact, there is only one way to achieve peace in the Middle East . Arab countries must acknowledge and accept their defeat in their war against Israel and, as the losing side should, pay Israel reparations for the more than 50 years of devastation they have visited on it. The most appropriate form of such reparations would be the removal of their terrorist organization from the land of Israel and accepting Israel’s ancient sovereignty over Gaza , Judea, and Samaria . That will mark the end of the Palestinian people. What are you saying again was its beginning?
Once you get past the obscene shock factor it becomes an ill-informed, simplistic portrayal of history, catering to an immature need to reduce all arguments to “Death to the Infidel” – which, by coincidence, is still the operative philosophy of most Arab countries.
Equating Israel’s justification and title to the Land with that of the peoples who conquered and subjugated it (though for relatively short periods of time) is perverse.
THANKS FOR THE CAPS!!!1! YOU FORGOT TO CALL ME A SELF-HATING JEW!!! 🙂 MAYBE NEXT TIME!!!!
That’s right, I have a Jew Card and I’m not afraid to use it.
Great work Nina! Love your animation and creativity. Just to add to the weapon choice for the israeli army, they developed their own rifle called Galil http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMI_Galil.
Keep it up!
Regards!!
nina,
never have i called you a self-hating jew (god forbid :)), though it is an ill-informed, simplistic portrayal of history.
you have such a talent and a wounderfull video, it just has to go some modifications to get Aligned with the truth and history. this is a great tool and can be a great Explanatory tool if only it was 100% correct.
happy sukot to you!
Beautiful work!! You MUST make this movie!! 😀
I wonder if anyone has ever had an a-HA moment like I just had. Just now. Israel & Palestine are the mothers staking claim to the infant (the actual land) like in the Judgment of Solomon. One could argue the judge in this instance could be the AOD.
Just thinkin’ out loud…
I like the guy with the hammer.
I’m an Israeli, technically a Jew (Hate all the religions, including “my own”, but I have a problem saying I’m not a Jew when I think of what my grandparents and their families had threw for being Jews).
First of all: I loved this clip and I find it brilliant!
I understand why Israel had to be founded. Sadly Theodor Herzl (who is considered as the Visionary of the State) understood what is about to come in Europe on time but all his attempts to save the Hebrew Europeans failed. I’m mentioning him because I appreciate the fact that although he thought the Hebrew country should be founded in its current location, he supported the idea of founding it in any location possible, because his goal was saving the Jewish people of Europe And I agree with this belief.
In addition, I’d like to note a few things:
1. 02:09-02:14 isn’t accurate. The Ottoman Turks weren’t beaten or even replaced by the Arabs. The Ottoman Empire was beaten by the British. I understand you wanted to say the Arabs lived in (let’s call It: ) the land during this time, but it doesn’t really fit. For instance, there were Hebrews in the land as well during this time (less than Muslims, but still).
2. Palestinians are basically Arabs that were named Palestinians when The British Army got its Mandatory over the land. I’d show this somehow.
3. As claimed before: the Hebrew people lived in the land even during other nations ruled it. The real progress of making the land into Israel was started when the British came to the land. It would be more precise to say the European Jew/Zionist and Palestinian were in the land during the same time.
4. The look of the European Jew/Zionist is problematic. A more correct look would be something like http://bit.ly/PUr8tR (surprisingly that was the only reasonable I found) – most of the Jews came to the land in this time weren’t religion!
5. After European Jew/Zionist I’d show a total war between the Zionists against the Palestinians and Arabs from Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. I’d skip the many pointless wars followed and the peace agreements that don’t matter for the video (yet important for the general history of wars in the land) . Then I’d show the Israelis who get born, become soldiers and then grew up. The point of this is that the Guerrilla/Freedom Fighter/Terrorist/PLO/Hamas/Hezbollah doesn’t fight with the IDF soldiers but with ordinary civilians while the IDF soldiers do attack the Terrorists.
I’m sorry if I repeat something that was already commented – I’m surprised I wrote all this (in English… in such a late hour) and I don’t have the necessary patience to read the previews comments.
And again – I think the video is brilliant.
I think Medinat Weimar is the best idea for a Jewish State. I’d consider settling there.
ho, now you are just being funny (i hope) “Medinat Weimar” …maybe you are what i didn’t say you are.
@רחל
המוח שלך כל כך שתוף שזה פשוט הזוי, ×× ×œ× ×”×™×™×ª×™ מכיר ×× ×©×™× ×›×ž×•×š הייתי ×ומר ש×ת פשוט טרול שמן… בכותך ו×× ×©×™× ×›×ž×•×š ×ž×“×™× ×” ×©×œ× ×• עוד כמה ×©× ×™× ×ª×ž×—×§ מהמפה.
Maybe the final combatant in this guide should be a caricature of an angry internet message board user pounding away on her keyboard:-)
Shouldn’t that be Who’s Killing Whom?
Loved the film!Shared it on my FB page. Even threw you a few shekels! Good work. Looking forward to viewing the eventual finished product.
Miss, this is awesome! You are to be commended and huzzah’ed for your effort. Very, very, very good. Thank you most sincerely. – Z
Rachel,
You are so concerned with the truth, but the truth is that both Israel and Palestine are made-up countries in today’s terms. So is the United States. Palestine is a country, Islam is a religion. Israel is a country, and Judaism is a religion. The citizens of both of these countries are from various parts of the world. Why would you think that people who choose to be Palestinians are less legitimate than people who choose to be Americans or Israelis? I would worry more about the possible war between Israel and Iran more than I would worry about parsing which citizens or which country has homeboy soul.
I just wanted to let you know that I enjoyed the video.
I’ll take a pass on jumping into the doo doo flinging about who is justified in killing who over the last 3k years,
Thank you!
And the women stand by and weep over the graves of children ad infinitum
This is quite brilliant. It would have been incomplete without the Angel of Death at the end.
Bravo.
I thought the video was well done;however, I think Rachel brings up good points.
In response to Gary about parsing citizenship, the parsing becomes significant when talking about home. Everyone needs a home.
@Gary – please read.
yes. i am concerned with the truth.While the so called Palestinians are a made-up people for the purpose of antisemetic propoganda, Israel is NOT a made-up country. Jews are not a made-up people.
just so you know how much the arabs are disconnected from the truth, the arabs don’t even have the letter “P” in their ABC’s, they can’t even pronounce the word correctly (they say “F” instead)- Felestine.
the jews have returned to their home land for the 3rd time in history and theologically, whether you are a christian or a muslim you know and believe that Israel was promised to the jewish people.
and now religion set a side (i’m far from being religious), even if you assume for the purpose of this discussion, that neither jews nor arabs have any moral, historical, legal or theological basic or rithgs on this land, when israel was founded under UN resolution and has been given only 20% of the territory called Palestine which was under the british mandate, while 80% where given to the arabs, they are the ones started the war – AND THEY LOST! now, in my book (and according to the rest of the world), if you start a war and lose – your problem! should have won…too bad 4 u (i remind you 5 arab armies against holocaust survivors).
now you see, the arabs will never recognize a jewish state since Islam is at war with everytthing and any one non-islamic, aspecialy jews. this is pure anti-semitisem.
just know this – if Israel, the only democracy in the ME should fall, the entire western world can kiss freedom goodbye (this is the final frontier).
FYI – i reffer you to the Balfour Declaration and the Faisal–Weizmann Agreement.
thank you for your attention!
@×לון
חבל ש××™× ×š יודע ×פילו ל×יית כמו שצריך, ×ולי ×× ×”×™×™×ª יודע, הייתי לוקחת ×ותך יותר ×‘×¨×¦×™× ×•×ª 🙂
ו×× ×תה ×כן מכיר ×× ×©×™× ×›×ž×•× ×™, ×תה בווד××™ יודע ש×× ×™ כוסית-על משכילה ומצליחה, שבדרך כלל ×“×•×•×§× ×ומרת ל×× ×©×™× ×›×ž×•×š ש××ª× ×©×˜×•×¤×™ המוח ×•×”×’×•×¨× ×©×™×‘×™× ×œ××•×‘×“× × ×•.
לך הביתה, תבכה על עיתון ×”×רץ.