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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Great video. I’ve been using this to explain the history of that area since 2012. Please, keep up the good work.
Brilliant.!!!
Why are some of those relative to the plagues not available??
As well the going out f Egypt- exodus – which have been available last year.
Hello, i really enjoyed the video and the song mostly
so can you please upload the song without the soundtrack or at least send it to me by Email I’d appreciate it
You forgot the Persians, who liberated the land from the Babylonian empire and freed the Jewish slaves under Cyrus the Great. They were then conquered by Alexander the Macedonian. I know, many people don’t like the idea that ancient Iranians saved the Jewish people, but it’s a historical fact.
By the way, I love your style. And the song. And how you could put thousands of years of history into a 3 minute movie. Although you forgot the ancient Iranians.
..& here comes another round as gory and needless and murderous as those that have gone before.
Hoping the ending shown here can still avoided but not looking good for anyone really.
(Love this clip.)
Great video, this is creeping me out.
Hello, I love this video — The art is fantastic, as I am a big fan of animation in general. I would love to put your image of the angel of death on a guitar. I make guitars that I gift out, or sell. If I do use it, I will donate or purchase a shirt of the very image. I enjoyed your interview with Jordan Peterson as well. If you do not want me to use the image, I won’t. I will still donate something, as I have watched your video about 8 times — and some of your other vids
I like this animation. Israel’s nukes weren’t sanctioned though, they were (are?) illicit.
Great stuff! What a pity you can’t do something on Islam and/or Mohammad because you’d be in danger of jihadists lopping your head off.
Whatever happened to free speech
This video is great. But I can’t believe you forgot the Philistines mentioned in Genesis who had already conquered the land by the time Abraham arrived. Then the Caphtorim who conquered those Philistines some time after the Israelites left to Egypt and just before they returned with Joshua. Just adds to the overall theme I guess.
A crooked sabre of the Arab Caliph is not historic. Dabres appeared on Middle East in X-XII century.
[…] http://blog.ninapaley.com/2012/10/01/this-land-is-mine/ : [Judaism – 3000 years; Christianity – 2000 years; Islam – 1400 years; and before that – isis, horus, osiris, etc ?] […]
[…] This dramatic animated video presents “This Land is Mine,” a song that tells the story of the wars in the Land of Israel/Palestine, from prehistoric times until today. With a hopeful melody clashing with violent imagery, this video depicts caricatures of generation after generation of historical characters killing one another in order to conquer this land in the name of God. This clip is part of Nina Paley’s animated feature,Seder-Masochism, a retelling of The Book of Exodus as patriarchy emerging from goddess worship. Nina Paley is a Jewish American cartoonist and animator who is highly critical of Judaism and Zionism. To see the artist’s explanation of this work and a guide to each of the characters, visit her blog. […]