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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This land us God Jehovah the only One.
Given to the God’s children and no one can take it fron them .
See “Indigeneity: Opening the Door to Path of Peace Between Jewish State of Israel and the Palestinians” @ http://goo.gl/wAJgOJ
Unfair comparison. .. equates the occupier with the occupied. ..
As if self-defence is like oppression???
That’s why it’s with the New Testament that we’re saved
“For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17)
Now, Israel as a nation haven’t yet known Who Jesus Christ is; so they stick with the Old Testament (Romans epistle explains a lot)… but a time is coming when israel as nation will believe in Jesus Christ
“They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.” (Zechariah 12:10)
it is not by coincidence that this land is do hot.
it is because this land belong to the Israelis in the past and in the present and for good including Judea and Samaria.
this is the only Western country that fight out in the open agents radical Islam. i don’t know who the movie creator referring with the demon at the end, but its defiantly suit radical Islam.
I would be happy to post your video with credits on my German youtube channel – in this case is it able to use the music or do I need a licence from the songwriter? thank you very much for your quick answer
^^
Larsini TV
Wow, amazing video.
Thanks for give us such a bright video on this moment such a painful time.
I love Sita sings the blues too.
Kindest regards from Argentina
Brilliant! An absolute masterpiece. The score, the story, the visuals, the ending with Samael; you defined the struggle perfectly, no explanation needed. This is a work of art and I hope the internet keeps this around for future generations to reflect upon. Bravo.
Thanks a lot for making this magnificent cartoon… It summarizes all the horrors that people are causing each other just for religious thoughts and greed. I agree with you by say that the Angel of Death is the only hero in all this bloody history.
Best regards from Colombia – South America (Sadly, another country affected by the horrors of war for power).
I’m interested in making subtitles in spanish for this video. This animation is awesome and more people should see it.
The pathetic is both sides kills in name of “god” .
“la ignorancia es cada vez… más atrevida”.
…que falta de respeto a la historia, a la verdad, y a la realidad.
Het buddy, you should take your work more seriouslty, you are just an ARTIST.
Congratulations.
Art is your gift.
So much hatred. Such petty behaviours, and such ignorance. Greed, violence, aggression, oppression. THAT is what you buy into when you subscribe to fanatism, whether religious, patriotic, or sports induced. Wake up. We are our own worst enemy.
Beautifully done. The user’s guide is very helpful in following the political changing of hands of this contested piece of land.
As other (Christians) have mentioned no where in the world will total healing/peace come to pass unless it is through the grace and blessing of our Holy God, Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Regardless of religious or political ideation the Holy God who made this world is the only one capable of healing the hurts and righting the wrongs. What many folks (Christians included) can’t seem to accept or understand is that as long as we are IN this world it will be broken and our way may be very difficult. It’s not what happens to us that defines who we are, it’s what we DO about what happens to us. Life is hard-God is good.
This is beautiful, but there are a few inaccuracies in the modern times:
You drew Zionists “Charedim” – highly religious jews, but actually the Charedim are anti-zionists and the Zionists were not religious.
Also, the Arabs didn’t kill the Ottomans, the lived under their rule – the British (with the help of the Zionists) defeated the Ottomans.
You should make a video like that about the hystory of the British Isles too!!!
Anyway, beautiful and smart video – loved the Angel of Death, he’s realy cute.
The sons of Zion are disgusting from that populated the land, the elect are said, but only outcasts and dregs of humanity.
Where stand spread their filth, they are junk, disgust and verdera crap.
All they do is steal money from other people.
Smart idea in a world where people sadly don’t always learn from the past. Shame that in 2014 history still repeats itself.
Anyway, your video’s worth seeing, especially at a time when everything seems to go so wrong in this land.
Thanks from Paris, and please keep doing amazing stuff like that.
To the Thankful believer in Jesus Christ.
The video is not helpful in telling the history of land changing hands, because either the knowledge of the creator or – as I actually suspect – the limitations of the time and the central concept of the animation limit the accurate historical narrative. To clarify, I am not talking of the issues with the more current figures in the cartoon. I am talking of the earlier figures. And I am surprised that a “Thankful believer in Jesus Christ” would not – at the very least – recognize that problem simply from their knowledge of the Bible. (To those who don’t know the Bible, it is correct in terms of descriptions of which countries owned that piece of land after the fall of the ancient states of Israel and then Judah.
(But that problem extends even further as the change from the Roman Empire to the Byzantine Empire was not bloody. It was the same state, just its eastern part, which became the Byzantine Empire due to a decision to split the country into two.)
Froggy, how’s Suha? Still shopping in the best Parisian boutiques with money given by Europeans to fund the Palestinian Authority and embazzled over the years into Yasser’s accounts?
Oh, and Nina. I do like your art. BTW, you, of course, are free to define how your last name is pronounced, but my guess is that original pronunciation is pa-LEI, kind of rhymes with ballet. It is especially likely if your ancestors came from the area that is today Belarus or neighboring countries, but very close to the Belarus’ borders.
Compliments for the beautiful video. Keep up the great work.
This Video solves all the Palestinian problem, it really Solves it all, the jews are the fifth who to come to this land, technically it’s not originally theirs in the first place !!! it’s originally for the ancient people who lived there first, the Canaanite, which are the ancient Palestinians, also the Egyptian and the Assyrian lived there first, historically all of these three are of the Ancient Arabs !!
its’ surprisingly that the video didn’t count the time frame for each civilization lived there !! if we made a chronological study, we will found that Muslim/Ancient Arabs had lived there for more than 95% of the whole history !!
The Byzantines were the Romans. It IS historically inaccurate to have the Byzantines cut down the Romans, which is exactly what you were afraid of.
Looking forward for new cartoons that addresses other trouble spots. This land in middle east should be contaminated so that now human can live there for 5000 years. ridiculous what happens there. stupid people fighting against each other for a land that actually is worthless. I should also say that God gave me a book and it states that Manhatten belong to my people. I should start a war….hahahahhahaa
The Hamites r the original occupiers of the Land b4 it was “laid waste” by their African forebearers…
If all LAND belonged 2 GOD, and people realized the Myth of the massa aryan nones.sense brought on by violent élan since 611A.D., this evil 2 2 2 Doctrine would cease!
B not beguiled by oralLOT.try of a cartoon, 4 GOD IS not mocked…!
the plantation seer
One thing that really TICKs me.off about your break down of the video. You say the israelis have SANCTIONED nukes. First off what does that even mean, that is a nonsensical statement because no one sanctions nukes. Second the israelis denied the existance of thier weapons program for years and never have never allowed inspections. They stole nuclear secrets from western countries so no it wasn’t SANCTIONED.
Brilliant is a tremendous understatement. Thank you for this spectacular work.
so true, so sad
Felicitaciones. Que bello y sintético vÃdeo. Siempre he pensado que esta guerra es tan antigua como el hombre. Si vemos con mas cuidado las guerras Púnicas (Cartago y Roma)derivan del mismo conflicto pues son los fenicios provenientes de ¨Persia quienes fundan Cartago. Y luego el conflicto entre moros y cristianos… etc.
Nina, thank you for this amazing way to explain the bloody history behind the conflict. I share your video and explain a little bit more about every character. Take a look if you want:
http://isaiasmachiavelli.com/en/2014/07/12/palestina-vs-israel-this-land-is-mine/
Very nice , well made video.Also at the arab caliph u should have used black colour and black turban. Check the iraq self proclaimed caliph dress.