Peace Propaganda And The Promised Land Analysis

Another theme that was addressed within the event was how U.S media often reports events that happen within the Palestinian/Israeli conflict inaccurately and often in support of Israel. This theme ties into the concept of media representation that was brought within the film Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land that we watched in class. In the discussion part of the event, the clip of the Palestinian women stabbing a soldier of a checkpoint was shown. One individual spoke up and argued that within U.S news media this event was portrayed so that the woman was seen as terrorist and the soldier was seen as the victim and an innocent. However, the individual argued that what U.S media had left unsaid was that the woman’s mother had been killed

The film was useful because it helped illustrate the hidden side of the Israeli/Palestine conflict that is often forgotten by U.S media. The conflict is often portrayed through a framework that emphasizes military movements and attacks, the economic/social situation, legislation and regulation issues and the death toll all of which dehumanizes the actual everyday violence that Palestinians endure. This dehumanization often leads to a situation when outsiders, such as U.S citizens, read or watch the news becoming desensitized from the issue. They take in the information/data without really connecting to it on an emotional and sympathetic level. For example an article or news report might come out with the headline “24 Palestinians killed in bomb blast” many individuals are so desensitized that they would take in the information but quickly move on to other news because to readers it is simply just number. The film helps shift this because when watching it you see the traumatic and distressing effect of the conflict from a child’s perspective. You also see the long lasting trauma that this produced in the wake of such violence and brutalization something that is often not brought up within other media. The Palestinian victims are no longer simply just numbers or statistics but rather viewers see them as individual human beings. The film is also useful because it portrays the Palestinians as being innocent victims in need of protecting something that often not done within media that deals with the Palestine/Israeli conflict. The discussion part of the event was also useful because it created a space to both educate and learn about the issues from other perspectives. For example many of the people shared their own experiences or their family’s experiences dealing with the Palestine/Israeli conflict. This discussion space allowed me to be educated about other issues that I had not known about such