The Promise

I overheard a coffee break discussion at work the other day about a TV mini series called "The Promise"(Luvattu maa in Finnish, bad translation). The series had worked as an eye-opener for some of the people discussing it how the Jews in Israel are not as innocent as they appear to be. What was this series all about? Naturally, I had to check it out asap...

Since I had missed the TV airing times for the series, I was lucky to catch all the four episodes online at Yle Areena service (getting my tax money's worth). Warning for those who do not want spoilers, I advise you to stop reading now.

The plot seemed interesting at first... A young English girl named Erin travels to Israel to keep company for a friend who flies back to do her military service. Before this trip, Erin had found his grandfather's old diary from the days when he was stationed in Palestine during the British Mandate. Erin's visit to Israel starts all ooh-la-la-you've-got-villas-with-pools, shopping in swanky boutiques and dancing the night away in a huge, pulsating nightclub. As the story bounces back and forth between modern day (Erin) and the 1940s (the grandfather), shots from liberated concentration camps are shown and those who survived, how happily they arrived in Palestine - liberated, alive, in search for hope after the horrendousgenocide. You might think the series is a ploy from the Israeli government for good word-of-mouth. But then the story changes. The brother of Erin's friend shows up and he is pro-Palestine and starts showing her the other side of the coin.

What started as a seemingly positive story about Israel, quickly turns sour for the Jewish folks. The only "negative" thing about the Arabs/Palestinians portrayed is a suicide bomber attack in a cafe but the rest concentrates on how seemingly the majority of the Jews were members of Irgun (and therefore murderous, deceiving and just terrible people hungry for blood) and how the settlers spit and trash the Arab citizens of the country. While these might not be far-fetched, I'm sure all of Israel is not like this and most of them would be embarrassed of such things to begin with.

Erin's visit to Gaza was the anti-climax of the show, the character's unreal attempts to sympathize with the locals and chaining herself to a building to stop the destruction of it. Please, how naive. The conflict lies way deeper and the fact that Erin tried to solve it by clinging on to a young Palestinian girl (who was to be used as a human shield by the IDF) was just irritating.

The series, I'm guessing, is trying to be impartial and demonstrate the story through the Brits, Jews, Arabs, 1940s and modern time. Quoting the grandfather character from the end, at first he would have let the Jews have anything (after seeing the concentration camps) but now... he wasn't so sure anymore. A country born out of violence will live with the same violence until the (bitter?) end.

The whole conflict is sad, and probably most of the people in the area are not war-maniacs wishing for the blockages, bombings and rockets to continue. When things are prolonged and go on for a long time, societies and nations evolve and change, and the root of it all starts to get blurred. When you kill, it's terrorism? When we will, it is self-protection? Difficult questions that "The Promise" wasn't able to answer and probably didn't intend to do so, after all.

Picture borrowed from Wikipedia.

Tuning in for the season

After +10 years of a break, I watched the animated movie The Prince of Egypt again. I remember clearly when and where I saw it the first time; my cousins received the VHS (or was it DVD?) as a Christmas present and we watched it two or three times during the holidays. I was already borderline "too old" to like cartoons anymore because it wouldn't be considered "cool" for someone in my age back then, but secretly I really liked it. Now, I could watch it in the original language and on top of that, could understand some of the Hebrew spoken in the movie - and love it openly regardless of age. :-)

The story of the Exodus is especially important now as Passover is nearing. The holiday commemorates the events around the freedom of the ancient Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Moses as the leader, lead the people to the promised land that would flow with milk and honey. If you're not familiar with the events that lead to the celebration of Passover, watch the movie. While some artistic liberties have been taken to make the story work on the silver screen, the 600 religions experts used during the movie make sure that the underlying facts are respected.

I have been involved in Passover celebrations in 2011 and 2012. The first time, I barely had a clue what was going on. Second time around, the experiences from the first time were immensely valuable for me to make a good impression. Stay tuned to see what happens in 2013...

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