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 film would be even better if rather than putting the angel of death in there, God was put in there in stead, since God says to Israel: “The land must not be sold forever, because THE LAND IS MINE!”.
Only one thing, about the European Jew/Zionist – the caricature portrays a hasidic Jew, or orthodox Jew. Hasids were and have always been passionately opposed to the creation of the state of Israel, as they believe it violates biblical prophesy. They are not Zionists, they are opponents of Zionism. All Jews are not zionists.
Did someone already mention that this video is brilliant?
Anyway I somehow disagree with you regarding your estimation of the Old Testament. In fact it tells a bloody story, but that’s more honest than telling fairy tales. And when I look at “my” land (Germany) the story sounds bloody and horrible as well.
The unique selling point of your video is the multiple claim of three religions and at least two nations that “this land” is the one and only Holy Land ™, and I know some Jews who seriously believe that they will be never pushed out of Israel any more, thanks to God. Don’t they see that one of the basic doctrines of the Old Testament is: “If you’re doing not right and keep up repressing conditions over a long time you jeopardize your right to stay in “this land”?
What I dont like at this, is that all characters are showing the SAME brutal violence (only with different weapons according to the time and despite the Hebrew Priest as the only one with a clean slate). But the characters are just the sovereigns of this piece of earth over the times. Some were extremly violent, some were not. Some expulsed people some did not. Some killed people who refused to convert to a religion some did not.
Funny after watching, people immediately start defending their group or ideology. Completely missing the point. Ready for another fight.
And what about Persians?
Superb! 😀
תעשי סרט ×× ×™×ž×¦×™×” על ×”×רץ שלך ו××– × ×¨××”..
כל כך ×œ× ×ž×“×•×™×™×§ ומגחיך ×ת הסיכסוך ×©×”×•× ×”×¨×‘×” יותר מדמויות שטוחות שהורגות ×–×” ×ת ×–×”
Art can sometimes help make things bearable. Thank you. Brilliant.
@לילה
You call yourself “Darkness” and you state that it’s so inaccurate and ridicules the conflict, but you’re missing the point. As long as there are people that are fighting each other for basically the same reasons, this will never end.
It would be very rich Spanish subtitled see this, I know it’s not your language, but is a great art that you could share with Latinos also
____________
SerÃa muy rico ver esto subtitulado en español, yo se que no es tu idioma pero es un gran arte que podrÃas compartir con latinos tambien
One of the best commentaries I’ve ever seen about the situation in the Middle East. Nina, I’ve always known you’re a genius! SF Weekly was left a much poorer paper once Nina’s Adventures no longer graced its pages. Though we never got the chance to get to know one another, I’m certain that you and I are kindred spirits. Much success on your Seder-Masochism and embroidermation projects.
Your work is superb.
This is a brilliant work, innovative and well executed. By the way, hysterically speaking Persians came after Babylonians. Seems like we are missing from your cartoon 🙂
This is trully great cartoon mirroring the truth, which is the angel of death being the happiest of them all. Sad the zionist state has turned to be the worsk killing machine of them all …
A beautiful, poignant, gory, short summary of a very long history – and where it may be headed. Thankyou Nina.
Can that ending be avoided?
Can the various sides and human people ever see reason and the Humanity and pain each has suffered and learn to share and not kill?
Si toda esa Zona explotara tendrÃamos un agujero sagrado donde los fanáticos visitarÃan
It makes sense. Nice work keep the truth alive…
Great amazing work! Your work is always fantastic!
Good video, i only want to say which the men who conquer from the romans are sasanids persians
why this manipulation.
Hamas is not bad !
watch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58Vq6KuAsrk
If you follow the hoy script, following destruction of the Temple by Babylonians it is Cyrus the Persian of Iran who returns Jews to the Holy Land and rebuilds the temple.
Wikipedia quote”Cyrus the Great figures in the Hebrew Bible as the patron and deliverer of the Jews. He is mentioned 23 times by name and alluded to several times more.[1] From these statements it appears that Cyrus the Great, king of Persia, was the monarch under whom the Babylonian captivity ended, for according to the Bible, in the first year of his reign he was prompted by God to make a decree that the Temple in Jerusalem should be rebuilt and that such Jews as cared to might return to their land for this purpose. Moreover, he showed his interest in the project by sending back with them the sacred vessels which had been taken from the First Temple and a considerable sum of money with which to buy building materials”.
This fact is omitted intentionally or unintentionally.
However Iran is mentioned in association with nuclear weapons and terrorists at the end. If the fact is ignored intentionally Shame!. Otherwise it could be corrected.
Thanks for giving anti-Semites and anti-Israeli
Rhetoric yet another tool by having people
Post your video On Facebook … As if we need more
fuel for the fire.
subtitulado en español:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiZW1G_d4Mw
I am sure the American government, along with Zionist lobby they kowtow to, will be relieved
that their obvious culpability is not even mentioned in this otherwise highly commendable
and worthy historical cartoon.
My comment, my guess, 99% of killing by MEN? Give us ladies a try, we could do better
You really lost the point here…
A pitty!
The crisis we have today involves TRUTH and MORALITY.
There is a profound inability for humans to know the TRUTH and MORALITY of political situations. There is NO Scientific Method for politics situations.
Good job.
This is totally awesome. Mahalo for doing this. It cleary points out the historical hypocrisy of claims to the ownership of the “land of Israel” which are little more than religious legends and fairy tales. More could be said about the recent history and the land grab that established the present state of affairs. Once again we should be aware that armed occupation does not equal “ownership.” Thanks again.
Thank you very much for your film, which is telling me the true character of Patriarchy. At least only one comment: It would be better to use the “Armageddon” as image, which is basing on the “Book of Revelation” and the image of the Apocalypse. Please read: http://www.againstbombing.com/ArmageddonUpdates.htm
You could adapt this cartoon to any geographical region and show a similar continuum of conflict and bloodshed and competing claims on that land. The main difference in this region (the “Holy Land”) is that it has a continual historical record that begins in antiquity, a record that was diligently preserved and updated from one generation to the next over THOUSANDS of years. This biblical history is unlike any other ancient literary work in that is not made up of heroic myths of triumphant heroes, but is instead a chronicle of human beings with all of their faults and failings and weaknesses, who were made into a great nation by a God who promised to use them to make Himself known to all the people groups of the earth. Lars-Toralf Storstrand, a previous commenter, is right. God says, “THIS LAND IS MY LAND”. Any analysis that leaves Him and His covenants out of the story, is just more politics, and furthers the conflict, no matter how well-intentioned.
MONGOLS MONGOL EMPITE
“since God says to Israel: “The land must not be sold forever, because THE LAND IS MINE!â€.”
Inaccurate, G-D says no such thing.It’s a narrative and it is Moses who says G-D said that. That’s an important distinction.
It is a brilliant video.
Love your video! I’m Jewish and have put in many, many volunteer hours working for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. It will happen some day. And it will happen a lot sooner if people understand the message of this video. Thank you!!!!
in this wonderful world we get :
In my contry there are 5 homicides each hour, and more 3ooo abortion every day, in USA there are around 5000 abortion every day. In the WORLD we have 3000 suicides every day…SO. JUST THINK..
I THINK THAT IN SOME COUNTRIES OF AFRICA THE PROBLEM IS WORST..
CONGRATULATIONS FOR YOU , NINA
SORRY, I FORGOT, MY COUNTRY IS BRAZIL
You give me hope.
Great satire. Well done. Thanks
Nina has done a brilliant job. Alexandra Hopkins is correct and this clip should be compulsory viewing by every person in the whole of the Middle East and especially the people of Palestine and Israel. If people are not willing to forget the past and start afresh, there can be no lasting peace. The minor omissions/missing participants in the historical message are minor issues but the overall message is clear. STOP NOW BEFORE IT BECOMES IRREVERSABLE!