RESISTANCE CINEMA in collaboration with ACTION FOR JUSTICE of the Community Church of NYC presents “PEACE, PROPAGANDA, & THE PROMISED LAND, U.S. Media & the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict”, 80 min. produced by The Media Education Foundation, Co-Directors: Bathsheba Ratzkoff & Sut Jhally Producer: Bathsheba Ratzkoff Executive Producer: Sut Jhally Editors: Kenyon King & Bathsheba Ratzkoff, copyright 2004, 80 minutes
WHEN: Sunday March 9, 2008, 1:15 pm
WHERE: Community Church of NYC 40 East 35th st. @ park ave.
ADMISSION: Free, Donations appreciated
This year Action For Justice has chosen the Israel/Palestine conflict to be its primary focus and Resistance Cinema is collaborating in that effort. Together we are proud to present an extraordinary film that penetrates many commonly held assumptions that are never challenged.
Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land provides a striking comparison of U.S. and
international media coverage of the crisis in the Middle East, zeroing in on how structural distortions in U.S. coverage have reinforced false perceptions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This pivotal documentary exposes how the foreign policy interests of American political elites--oil, and a need to have a secure military base in the region, among others--work in combination with Israeli public relations strategies to exercise a powerful influence over how news from the region is reported.
Through the voices of scholars, media critics, peace activists, religious figures, and Middle East experts, Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land carefully analyzes and explains how--through the use of language, framing and context--the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza remains hidden in the news media, and Israeli colonization of the occupied terrorities appears to be a defensive move rather than an offensive one. The documentary
also explores the ways that U.S. journalists, for reasons ranging from intimidation to a lack of thorough investigation, have become complicit in carrying out Israel's PR campaign. At its core, the documentary raises questions about the ethics and role of journalism, and the relationship between media and politics.
Sut Jhally is a professor of Communication at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and founder and executive director of the Media Education Foundation (MEF) for more than 15 years. As an author, his written work includes, The Codes of Advertising, co-author of Social Communication in Advertising, and Enlightened Racism. He is also co-editor of Cultural Politics in Contemporary America and Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear & the Selling of American Empire.
Bathsheba Ratzkoff is a producer and editor at the Media Education Foundation and a 1999 graduate of the
University of Massachussetts. She is the producer, co-director and co-editor of the documentary Peace Propaganda & the Promised Land: U.S. Media & the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. She is also an associate producer on the documentary Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear & the Selling of American Empire. Ratzkoff is currently producing a film called Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies A People.
Interviewees include Seth Ackerman, Mjr. Stav Adivi, Rabbi Arik Ascherman, Hanan Ashrawi, Noam Chomsky, Robert Fisk, Neve Gordon, Toufic Haddad, Sam Husseini, Hussein Ibish, Robert Jensen, Rabbi Michael Lerner, Karen Pfeifer, Alisa Solomon, and Gila Svirsky.