The video above is totally visceral, a vision of Israel's archipelago of occupation in the West Bank. But it doesn't show reality in the West Bank. It shows a version of that reality, transposed to Britain. It's illustrative and evocative--illustrative in that it compresses the occupation's effects on the people living in the West Bank to a terse, chilling seven minutes. It's evocative for a different reason. Those of us brought up in Western Europe or the United States or settler-colonial states [like Israel!] have grown up in profoundly racist societies, perhaps despite the desperate sheltering efforts of parents and teachers. We've had it drilled into us, through unceasing propaganda, throughout our lives, that white people's lives are worth more than those of black or brown people. This brilliant video re-codes the occupation, playing to that tacit racism, turning it into a lever to upend whatever is left of the occupation's symbolic legitimacy. Check it out.
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Brilliant. I can’t imagine anyone being able to watch this without getting slightly sick (except, perhaps, for the Palestinians in the West Bank, who would probably first notice that in this transposed version of reality, the shops still have products in them. the buildings are intact, and the people look well fed and appear to have the benefit of regular access to clean running water). Once again, a film shows that injustices are much more obvious when you cast white folks as the victims.