Palestine

I recently read the graphic comic novel Palestine by Joe Sacco. Sacco goes to Israel (the West Bank and the Gaza strip circa 1992) to find inspiration for a comic series based on his interviews of Palestinians in order to get the other side of the Israeli-Palestine problem. He adds his personal commentary and shows himself warts in all, he has little trouble accepting the hospitality of refugees who invite him into their home and feed him. But I feel as though he loses part of his argument since he doesn’t present enough context to what is a very complex question. Obviously, killing and jailing kids for throwing rocks, forcibly bulldozing homes, harassment, torture, and intimidation are wrong and unjustifiable. But what led to those policies? For example, are we to assume every person that he interviews that says that he ahs been to jail is innocent? Because there are Palestine revenge killings against collaborators, suicide bombings, and terrorism. Both sides have blood on their hands. In fact, he sort of addresses this issue when he befriends two Israeli architects on vacation in Jerusalem late in the book, but acknowledges it would take another book to present the Israeli side of things. But Sacco does have a point about the Palestinian cause being underrepresented in the American media, since the government is so pro-Israeli. I have an Aussie friend who has adopted the Palestinian situation as his pet clause, which is somewhat incomprehensible since he is of Irish descent and there seem to plenty of more clear cut cause to rally around. I think it has something to do with anti-American government feelings that often crop up with certain Brits, Aussies, and so forth. Especially given that they have done the same things to the aborigines but somehow that doesn’t compute with my friend. Anyway, a fascinating personal look at complicated situation.

Comments

[Edward]

Well, I guess I now have to add my 20 cents worth (Australian cents that is). What happened to the aborigines was much worse really, but I think the plight of Palestinians does not bare comparison with that of the Australian aborigines. When the world's most advanced civilisation comes into contact with a basic nomadic people during a time of rampant collonisation you can't expect anything but complete domination. I guess the Palestinians are viewed as a fairly civilised people caught up in other people's politics and wars and coming out of it as the only obvious losers. They also still occupy (solely) some of the land they'd like back, and so are able to return to something like they used to be, wereas the Australian situation is too far gone (much like in America of course - we share this in common). The new Labour gov't recently apologised officially for various past wrongs, (something the last gov't refused to do), and this had the full support of the populace, but of course you can't turn back time.
The Australian - American relationship? I think it's like a young up-start taking on his (annoying) big brother. I doubt there's any more animosity felt by Australians than other nations, it's just that when you're family you tend to express it more readily right?

[MC]

I agree in principle, but I think some Aussies have a chip on their shoulder.

By the way, apologized is spelt with a "z".

[Michele]

i think paul had a few issues of this "comic" from before the novel. the issues used to be hard to come by, but there was a place in DC that had graphic novels, high end comics, etc. that sold those...that dude who wrote the book was jewish, right?

i personally find the degree of american governmental support for israel appalling. i won't get into it too much because people really get pissed off about my saying things like this--but technically, the foreign minority kicked out the national majority in its OWN HOMELAND...why should the palestinians have settled for less than what it had BEFORE the second world war was going on? seriously. it's not rocket science.

[phatrick]

Pat, I have to agree with you. While I enjoyed the book, and thought it did a good job of illustrating (no pun intended) the situation in a new way, I also found it to be sort of simplistic, maybe heavy-handed and lopsided. I don't pretend to know the answer to this problem, but I do pretend to know that it is a bit more nuanced than Sacco lets on.

By the way I just started reading "Righteous Victims: a history of the Zionist-Arab conflict, 1881-2001" by Benny Morris. Morris is apparently, a part of a new wave of Israeli historians (some have called him "revisionist") who are questioning the status quo in the historiography of Palestine, which has mostly been written by Israelis and has, therefore, been seen to bear and Israeli bias. We'll see, it's 700 pages and the type is exceeding small. The book itself may be too nuanced for me to get through. Sounds like it might be right up your alley, though.