[Marxism] Film review: A Zionist state where "The Land Speaks Arabic"

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Film review: A Zionist state where "The Land Speaks Arabic" 
Maymanah Farhat, The Electronic Intifada, 16 March 2009 
 
 
Maryse Gargour's 61-minute film The Land Speaks Arabic documents  the 
founding of the Zionist movement and the expulsion of Palestinians in the  
early part 
of the 20th century. The historical narrative is reconstructed by  weaving 
archival materials such as photographs, films, news reels and official  
documents, with the testimonies of Palestinian survivors of the forced 
expulsion  of 
1947-48, referred to as the Nakba, and the findings of British-Palestinian  
historian Nur Masalha.

Beginning with Masalha's thesis emphasizing the  idea of "transfer" as the 
rudimentary motive of Zionism, the film chronicles the  establishment of the 
Israeli state through the initial proposals of European  Zionists in the late 
19th century and the terrorist tactics of Jewish settlers  in Palestine under 
the 
British Mandate. Acting as the historical anchor of the  film, Masalha first 
describes how he came upon innumerable records in Israeli  archives outlining 
the transfer of European Jews to Palestine with the  simultaneous ejection of 
local Palestinians to neighboring countries. He then  places this policy 
within the European colonial mindset of the time, one based  on racist, 
supremacist 
notions.

As its early leaders and lobbyists were  based in European capitals in the 
1800s, the Zionist movement gained momentum  with the support of local 
officials 
prior to the fall of the Ottoman Empire and  the establishment of the British 
Mandate of Palestine. In 1917, the British  government expressed support for 
"the establishment in Palestine of a national  home for the Jewish people." 
Known as the "Balfour Declaration," the terms of  the letter, written by then 
Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Baron  Rothschild, a prominent member of 
the 
Jewish community in England and financial  backer of Zionist settlement in 
Palestine, were incorporated into the British  mandate for Palestine.

According to Masalha, the origins of Zionism in  Europe were secular, with 
many of its early leadership comprised of atheist  nationalists. He outlines a 
kind of "tribal nationalism -- blood and race and  land, all mixed together," 
which can only be "exclusive" and "ethnic," that  dominated the beginnings of 
the movement for a national Jewish homeland. In  order to appeal to an 
international consciousness, Masalha contends that Zionism  had to reinvent 
Judaism, 
using the Bible effectively to create a "blood  connection" between ancient 
Israelites and modern European Jews.

Gargour  expands on Masalha's discussion by utilizing a historical propaganda 
film clip  that asserts Jewish immigrants created metropolitan centers like 
Tel Aviv on  desert and swampland. These myths helped to create a notion of 
Zionist  colonization as a legitimate "pioneering" movement, one similar to 
European  endeavors in the Americas, that although rooted in racist imperialist 
notions,  are still justified in the West.

Masalha details the demographic  composition of Jewish settlement in 
Palestine as well as the ideals of Labor  Zionism. The predominant strain of 
Zionism 
in the Yishuv (Jewish community in  Palestine), Labor Zionism sought the 
gradual establishment of a national state  through immigration into Palestine, 
and 
the "redemption of Eretz Yisrael (the  land of Israel)" through "Jewish Land 
and Jewish Labor." Gargour contrasts the  images of Zionist newspapers 
chronicling the steady migration of Jews into  Palestine with those of the Arab 
media 
agencies describing the impact of  thousands of European immigrants descending 
on Palestinian cities and villages.  This demographic change occurred most 
dramatically in the early  1930s.

The radical transformation of the demographic characteristics of  Palestine 
under British rule instigated widespread unrest among Palestinians who  
realized the threat of the introduction of this new population, which set out 
to  
expel the indigenous population. Perhaps the strongest point of The Land  
Speaks 
Arabic is the use of first-hand accounts of Palestinians living  under the 
British mandate. These include the testimonials by Hussein Fayad  Zaydan of 
Balad 
al-Sheikh and Abu Mohammed Younis of Safsaf village, who  described the rise 
of the resistance and were injured during clashes. These oral  histories serve 
to substantiate Masalha's historical narrative and the media of  the time.

The increase in Zionist immigration in the 1930s led to  Palestinian worker 
strikes, youth demonstrations, and eventually the Great  Revolt of 1936. As 
British forces were brought in to pacify the uprising, Jewish  political 
leaders 
proposed the idea of transfer as the singular resolution to  ending 
Palestinian resistance. To personalize the impact of Zionist immigration,  
Gargour draws 
on the testimony of Palestinians describing life in villages and  cities 
during this period. Adding greater weight to the implication of Zionist  
immigration, is a narrator-read statement by Yosef Weitz, then Director of the  
Jewish 
National Fund, who asserts that the Palestinian population will not be  
eradicated through gentrification but through relocation out of the  country.

By 1939, British forces were able to crush the Arab Revolt, with  grave 
implications for the Palestinian community. Masalha asserts that by the  1940s, 
Palestinian military force had already been significantly disarmed. In  
contrast, 
the Yishuv was created as a "military civilian community," with  settlers 
acting as a powerful military force. Zionist terrorist groups sought to  
destabilize British forces through assassinations but also focused on planting  
bombs 
in areas populated by Palestinians.

Terrorizing Palestinian  communities meant disrupting local Arab society. 
Often dressed as Arabs, members  of Zionist terrorist organizations such as the 
Stern Gang and the Irgun, set out  to disrupt Arab urban centers by initiating 
these explosions and intimidating  Palestinian leaders. These attacks are 
detailed through interviews with a number  of Palestinians who lost family 
members 
and friends in several bombings. Gargour  utilizes British archival footage 
to demonstrate the damage of these terrorist  acts and the arrests of several 
members of Zionist terrorist gangs who had stock  piles of arms in synagogues. 
By 1948, the terror campaigns turned to large-scale  massacres and attacks on 
villages, leading to the mass explosion of Palestinians  that culminated in 
the Nakba. The film ends with several eyewitness accounts by  Palestinians who 
experienced and survived the Nakba. 

Employing a team of  researchers who scoured through archives in Europe, the 
US, and the Middle East,  The Land Speaks Arabic is thoroughly researched, 
nuanced and well-made.  Gargour's film is a significant contribution to the 
historical recording of the  Palestinian narrative and is a must-see for anyone 
interested in the history of  Palestine and the Palestinians.

Maymanah Farhat specializes in modern  and contemporary Arab art. Her 
collected writings can be viewed online at 
_http://maymanahfarhat.wordpress.com_ 
(http://maymanahfarhat.wordpress.com) .


_http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10390.shtml_ 
(http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10390.shtml)  
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