‘Occupation
Of The American Mind’ Unravels Israel’s Propaganda
War In US
By Roqayah Chamseddine
May 17,
2016 "Information
Clearing House"
- "ShadowProof"
- “The Occupation Of The American Mind,”
directed by Loretta Alper and Jeremy Earp, is a
stunning documentary examining Israel’s public
relations war in the United States. It premiered
last month.
The film,
which begins with a heart-stopping shot of an
apartment complex in Gaza as it is bombed during the
2014 war, pulls no punches. The sounds and images
are riveting. You’re able to see the fire and thick
smoke pouring into the air, but there are no voices
that break the quiet aftermath. Only the sharp
clinking of debris.
Roger Waters, Pink Floyd co-founder and BDS
advocate, narrates the film, sending viewers back
into that bloody summer in 2014—one which now seems
to much of the world as though it was a lifetime
ago.
While rage was building against Israel during
that summertime bloodbath, in the United States the
story was far different. The American people, Waters
says, held firm in their support for the bombing of
Gaza. The much beloved talking point that “Israel
has a right to defend itself,” one that became a
kind of religious mantra during that war and those
before it, is explored from the very start of the
film.
With help from Peter Hart, of Fair Media Watch,
Yousef Munayyer, executive director of The U.S.
Campaign to End The Israeli Occupation, and others,
the film deconstructs the establishment media’s
propaganda efforts. Yousef Munayyer argues that when
we examine the formula that mainstream media outlets
follow we find Israeli spokespeople are
over-represented when compared to Palestinian
spokespeople by a margin of 3 to 1. So when Israel
is discussed, we are inundated with commentary from
officials, who propagate in support of Israel’s use
of violence.
American elected officials also join the chorus
in order to reinforce Israel’s “right to defend
itself,” and this translates into news anchors
echoing the same talking points, thereby directly
influencing the public’s perception of the conflict.
“The Occupation Of The American Mind” also takes
viewers back in time to the moment in history
referred to in Arabic as al Nakba, or The
Catastrophe, when countless Palestinians were forced
out of their homes in order to make way for
unfettered colonization in a newly formed Israel.
Waters tells the story of how more than 700,000
of Palestine’s native population were expelled,
while a chilling video of thousands of Palestinians,
forced to march away from their homeland, plays on
screen. Viewers see the toll that this uprooting
took on the faces of Palestinian men, women, and
children, in black and white photographs.
Years later, the state of Israel not only
worked tirelessly to dehumanize and massacre the
Palestinians inside Palestine, but elsewhere. In
Lebanon, the Sabra and Shatila massacre, which was
televised for the entire world to see, became what
Phyllis Bennis, author and fellow at the Institute
for Policy Studies, describes as “a watershed moment
for Israel.” The massacre of Palestinians and
Lebanese civilians in 1982 by the Phalangists, a
fascist Lebanese militia, was overseen by Israel. It
marked the first time the colonial settler state
went on the offensive, defending itself from bad
publicity.
The 1982 war in Lebanon was a game changer for
Israel. Out of the blood-soaked ashes of south
Lebanon and West Beirut, Israel’s public relations
strategy was born.
As the film explores U.S. public opinion, it
unravels the dominant narrative concerning the
occupation: that Israel, the brave David, is facing
the Palestinian Goliath.
Renowned scholar Noam Chomsky gives the final
blow before the film ends: “The U.S. government will
support [the occupation] as long as the U.S.
population tolerates it.”
This is a masterful and riveting film that not
only dispels the myth of Israel’s victimhood, but
brings the past and present together in order to
unearth realities of the occupation, which
rightfully humanize the Palestinians. It is moving
in a way that goes beyond images and a retelling of
a painful history. It challenges not only the
establishment media, but the American public as
well.
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