A polemical assault on what's portrayed as one-sided American media coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian struggle, the whistle-blowing Media Education Foundation's Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land also makes the case that the U.S. government, multinational corporate interests, and a skillful marketing campaign by Israeli authorities and their supporters, all conspire to present Israel's policies in the most positive light, thereby coloring American views of the longstanding conflict. The central argument alleges that although the Israeli occupation of the territories seized during the 1967 war continues to be a brutal and illegal process calculated to bring about the eventual annexation of the land, the situation is tacitly depicted by the mainstream American media as a regrettable defensive necessity, while that same media all too readily describes Palestinian resistance--which is actually an understandable response to oppression--as terrorism. Comparisons with coverage by British sources are used to highlight the ways in which U.S. reporters are manipulated to adopt the official Israeli perspective while downplaying both the extent of Palestinian suffering and the opinions of the Jewish peace movement. Hardly an objective treatment of this important journalistic and geopolitical subject, this documentary nevertheless makes a strong case, effectively combining newsreel footage and interviews with reporters, activists, diplomats, and other sources. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)
Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land: U.S. Media & the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
(2004) 80 min. VHS or DVD: $125: high school & public libraries; $250: colleges & universities. Media Education Foundation. PPR. Color cover. ISBN: 1-893521-92-3 (vhs). Volume 19, Issue 5
Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land: U.S. Media & the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
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