In the pro-Israel view, Palestinians are “an undesired presence”
Published
by
Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi
JVL Introduction
We make no apology for yet another blogpost about the controversy surrounding Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone and No Other Land.
As Joseph Finlay cogently argues, the reception these two films have received epitomises a pro-Israel mindset in which Gazan people – and in effect all Palestinians – do not exist. They are “simply an undesired presence on land that Israel wants”.
NWI
This article was originally published by Torat Albion on Thu 6 Mar 2025. Read the original here.
Erasing Gaza: Two Recent Film Controversies and the Denial of Palestine
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Max Blumenthal and Dan Cohen did a film . documentary , Killing Gaza a few years ago , about the 2014 assault on Gaza . It is also well worth a watch . https://killinggaza.com
Your intro and byline day Torat Alba. Joseph blogs as Torat Albion.
I happened to think that Albion is inappropriate in either it’s meaning of White, or as a reference to England, when Joseph states that he blogs in ‘a UK context’.
But it is his choice and should be respected and reflected here.
Thanks for pointing out the error, now corrected.
The “payment” to Abdullah Al-Yazouri is said to be merely the reimbursement of the expenses he paid out due to his involvement in the film. He didn’t receive a fee.
Assuming Abdullah was only compensated for his costs, reasonable conclusions are as follows:-
1. the total sums paid over to him will be MINISCULE because his film-related costs will also be insignificant. Abdullah might have had to keep his phone charged and fund getting to different film locations, for example – very low-cost items.
While Abdullah’s family almost certainly couldn’t afford to gift his expenses to Hamas that organisation would barely notice the money if they did.
2. The film-maker would have kept a record of the nature of the expenses payments made to Abdullah because it’s a standard accounting procedure to do so. Therefore the BBC could easily have defended themselves against the suggestions that the film helped fund Hamas.