Editor’s Note: This is one person’s view with recommended films that represent a range of perspectives as an invitation to constructive dialogue, and we welcome respectful comments. Given the sensitivity of the issues, we will remove any comments we find inappropriate. And we invite other people who are familiar with the films that address these issues to develop their own lists for us to publish.  


PART 1: INTRODUCTION AND VIEWING LIST

This series presents the situation in four installments. First, we will explore religious films. Second, we will survey attempts at good will
and attempts at hostility. Third, we
will explore Israel from the perspective of pro-Israeli filmmakers. Fourth, we will explore Palestine from the
perspective of pro-Palestinian filmmakers. 

I am selecting films that are easily available, guiding you
through the multiple narratives that inform the various outlooks on this
region. When students ask me whose side I am on, my answer is simple: I am on
the side of the people. Palestinian. Israeli. Christian. Jewish. Muslim.
Non-believer. I am not as compassionate toward the Policymakers.

A number of recent events compelled this series. Right now, we are witnessing what some call a
war and others call a siege. Israeli
Defense Forces and Hamas are firing on each other, again, allegedly in response
to a series of killings of Israeli and Palestinian children. Though both Islam and Judaism speak of
humanity as so sacred that one lost life is an incalculable tragedy, the
casualties, however, are not remotely even. Palestinian deaths surpass Israeli deaths by a ratio of over 200 to 1,
where 1 out of 5 deaths are believed to be children. 

Related to these events, many American celebrities have disavowed
their own comments, like “#FreePalestine” (by NBA star Dwight Howard and singer Rihanna), after being accused of
bigotry. Meaning, in the minds of some
very vocal people, “Pray for Tel Aviv” would not be bigotry, but “Pray for Gaza” (as stated and recanted by singer/actress Selena Gomez) would. All people should be prayed for, indeed, but
praying for a particular group does not imply hatred for another.

Further, the Presbyterian Church voted to divest its interests in
American companies involved in human rights violations, thriving on Israeli
settlements in Palestinian territories. Last, President Obama just hosted his annual “White House Iftar,” commenting, among his many usual diplomatic pleasantries, that Israel
has to right to defend itself. Indeed it does, but taking that point to its full
conclusion, so to do Iraq and Afghanistan against us, except that when they do,
we call them “insurgents”and “terrorists.”

The conversation on Palestine/Israel is, thus, one of the most
impossible conversations in our society.
It is difficult enough to find people who are able to engage honestly
and dispassionately, and even self-critically. Some focus on human rights. Some seek a safe haven against hostilities.
Some are hopeful for a returning Messiah; some seek to force his return. Some
are driven by anti-Semitism, others by Islamophobia. I am not claiming to be
unbiased here, but I will try to be fair.

The best way to describe my sentiments, especially regarding the
future of the Palestinians and Palestine, can be summed up in one word:
despair. Nevertheless, all three of the great Abrahamic traditions claim that
impieties have happened here, but so too have miracles. So, we must still have
hope, even if it is small.

And, with that we begin our series with Religion. Old time
religion. Five movies. 

The goal is to touch upon the various narratives that guide us in
viewing the people, the land, and the problems. In Narrative, there are heroes
and villains, and a lot of empty spaces. The Western Narrative usually leaves out the Islamic influence
(especially during the Medieval period) and Colonization. The American Narrative downplays the genocide
of the Native Americans and the Transatlantic Slave Trade as aberrations. Thus, narratives massage facts. 

Likewise, each religion sees itself and sees others through its
own lens. Judaism sees Christianity and
Islam as offshoots. Christianity sees itself—rather, sees Jesus Christ—as the fulfillment of Judaism, while
seeing Islam as a parallel, sometimes competing, tradition with similar origins
and theologies. Islam sees itself as the
oldest of religions, with Judaism and Christianity as offshoots, in that Islam
claims Abraham, Moses, and Jesus as prophets of Islam as Judaism claims Abraham
as a patriarch of Judaism; may peace be upon them all. The point is that when we speak of
narratives, legitimacy may not come from fact but from belief. We do not
believe in the narratives because they are true; they are true because we
believe in them. Sometimes these
narratives fit well together, and sometimes they clash. When we speak of the land called Israel or
Palestine, we seem to only speak of clash.

Kingdom of Heaven” (Scott, 2005).

This film explores the role of Jerusalem in the imaginations of
the Medieval people, as a place of redemption, renewal, and self-determination,
hovering beneath a dark cloud of religious triumphalism. We meet a leper King Baldwin, who seeks to
keep peace by keeping Jerusalem as a place for all faiths. We watch the
legendary Muslim leader Salah al-Din (Saladin) maintaining the peace, but ready
to storm in if necessary. There is a
brief moment where Salah al-Din offers to send the ailing King his own physician. Legend tells us that the physician was one
of the greatest of all Rabbis, Moses Maimonides, though some historians
disagree. In any case, threatening the peace are the militant Christian group,
the Knights Templar, determined by an imagined Divine Right to rule Jerusalem
and the world. In the process, we meet others who give up hope for any holiness
in Jerusalem. Meaning, “Kingdom of Heaven” tells us that some come to Jerusalem seeking God, while others leave
Jerusalem believing that God has abandoned it.

“Crusade” etymologically comes from “being
marked with the Cross.” Its
meaning is, however, similar to the meaning of “jihad,” as a struggle toward some goal. When Christians use “crusade” or Muslims use “jihad,” they speak of something ambitious, noble and non-violent. We know,
however, that what Pope Urban II launched in 1095 CE was definitely violent: a
holy war against the infidel Muslims for control and restoration of the Holy
Land.  At the same time, a group of
Renegades went through particular places in Europe seeking out Jews for
persecution. 

The whole of history, however, tells a wider story. Indeed,
Jerusalem is a place run by Romans, Jews, Christians, and Muslims in various
periods, and the change of authority was usually often bloody, including the
destruction of the two Temples in 587 BCE and 70 CE. But, because of the lack of material benefits
and natural resources, other regions witnessed far more conflict through the
generations. Meaning, Jerusalem was not,
contrary to popular belief, a place of perpetual war, because it was not, save
for men of piety, a place of much interest or benefit. But, as a symbol of Divine promises, it was
and is something other worldly.

“The Ten Commandments” (1956)

Perhaps the greatest of all Hollywood epics. I watched this film
with my family year after year every Passover/Easter, though as a child I knew
more about colorful bunnies and eggs than about Pesach or Good Friday. This film gives us the story of Moses and the
Children of Israel, which plays a major role in all three of the Abrahamic
Traditions, though it is most central in the Jewish narrative. Moses grows up
with the Pharaoh in Egypt before the Divine calls upon him. He demands the
Pharaoh to turn to God, and free the enslaved Hebrews. He leads his people
toward the promised land, beyond the split sea, beyond their worship of the
golden calf, beyond their ungrateful demands. 

In this context, we are watching this film to understand that in the Jewish narrative, Israel is three. Israel is a title given to Jacob, son of Isaac, son of Abraham. Israel
is also the Jewish people. And, Israel is the land. In the Jewish narrative,
the three are inseparable.

The Passion of the Christ” (2004)

Perhaps the most powerful of all such movies, if at least because
of the brutal violence inflicted upon Jesus, especially when juxtaposed with
his gentle demeanor speaking to his mother, and teaching his disciples. In this film, Jesus gets betrayed by Judas;
made subject to trial, crucifixion, and resurrected. The Sanhedrin regard him as a heretic for
claiming to be the Son of God, the Messiah, and the King of the Jews. The Roman
governor Pontius Pilate washes his hands of Jesus, literally, allowing him to
get chastised, flogged, and pummeled.

In our context, this film carries multiple purposes. First, it
presents the central role that Jerusalem has in the Christian narrative. Second, the film was protested for presenting
a particular read of the Jesus narrative, placing most blame on Caiaphas, the
Jewish High Priest, rather than Pilate, who seems comparatively humane. That
narrative was repudiated by Pope Paul VI during the Second Vatican Council in
the 1960s. Mel Gibson’s gifts as a director get
unfortunately overshadowed by other matters in his conduct including his bouts
of anti-Semitism.  Nevertheless, this
film is for many Catholics a sacred experience, focused on the suffering Christ,
regardless of who is responsible for his death. 

It is also worth noting that today, the keys to the Church of the
Holy Sepulchre, commemorating the site of Jesus’ crucifixion and burial, have been cared for over generations by a
family of Palestinian Muslims.

“The Jesus Film” (Sykes, Krish, Heyman, 1979)

The actual title of this film is simply “Jesus.” Two films about Jesus are important here because we speak of two
populations of Christians. If “The Passion of the Christ” presents a very visceral Catholic experience, then this film presents an
Evangelical Protestant narrative focused on the ministry and atonement. 

The distributors claim that this film has a thousand
translations, more than a billion viewings, and 200 million
conversions. In the contemporary world,
we find the Right Wing among the Evangelical Protestants as politically active
and interested in the workings of the Israeli state as almost any other
group. They are so active and
aggressive, as a Christian Zionist movement, that we might assume they speak
for all Christianity, and overlook the population of Moderate and Left Wing
Evangelicals. What is their goal?
Apocalypse: the return of their Lord and Savior. Narratives feature heroes and villains; such
people are constantly on the lookout for the Anti-Christ.

“Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet” (Schwarz and al-Qattan 2002).

The most viewed film about the life of the prophet Muhammad is
Moustapha Akkad’s “The Message” (1976), featuring Anthony Quinn and Irene Papas. But, that film does not engage the political
treachery Muhammad faced by three of the Jewish tribes in Arabia, and it does
not explore the Night Journey, during which Muhammad visited Jerusalem on his
way to passing through Hell and Heaven before a special meeting with the
Divine, in a path later lifted by Dante. This documentary about Muslims in America, interspersed with
explorations of major moments in Muhammad’s life, studies all
those events directly.

Within Jerusalem, the al-Aqsa campus is for Muslims the third
most sacred site on the planet, after Mecca and Medina. Near its center, the golden domed, blue Dome
of the Rock, marks the spot where Muhammad ascended. That whole structure happens to sit on top of
the site of the previous Temple, Judaism’s most sacred
center, where Jews today visit, expressing prayers at its Western Wall.

Jerusalem is, thus, central to all three of these
traditions. More importantly, the
American narrative about Jerusalem is that the conflict is driven through
religion, from start to finish. That is
only a partial truth, as we will see in subsequent entries. 

Next: Attempts at Good Will and Attempts at Hostility.

Read the other three parts of Muzaffer’s series here, here, and here.

Omer M. Mozaffar

Omer M. Mozaffar teaches at Loyola University Chicago, where he is the Muslim Chaplain, teaching courses in Theology and Literature. He has given thousands of talks on Islam since 9/11. He is also a Hollywood Technical Consultant for productions on matters related to Islam, Arabs, South Asians. 

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