Paradise Now

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

martha

Blue Crack Supplier
Joined
Mar 30, 2001
Messages
42,544
Location
Orange County and all over the goddamn place
yikes



Go see this movie for an experience you won't get anywhere in the mainstream media.

It will make your stomach hurt at times, and you will either be unable to breathe or you will breathe too fast at certain times.
 
deep said:
it is on my list

well,

i saw it yesterday afternoon

and was not that blown away (sorry)

it may have a bit of a slant.


people will take away from this
what they want to believe

"the occupation
defines the resistance"
 
From what I have heard the slant has the effect of pity on most, I am not going to make up my mind until I see the film.
 
Shooting Paradise Now

10.jpg


Palestinian children learn at a young age about the struggle for freedom. To some, the Palestinian martyrs are heroes. Here a child poses for a photograph at a rally organised by militants.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/05/in_pictures_shooting_paradise_now_/html/10.stm

I have made my mind up about these "militant groups" already, they are hollow death cults.
 
There is an excellent 1998 Tamil film, Theeviravaathi (The Terrorist) that I've used in class a few times. It's the story of a young woman chosen for a suicide mission by the terrorist organization to which she belongs. Although the film never names the organization, it is clearly modeled on the 1991 assassination of Indian PM Rajiv Gandhi by a female member of Sri Lanka's separatist (and secular) Tamil Tigers. Incidentally, the Tigers were the first to "popularize" the use of a vest laden with explosives.

It is quite an affecting film, well worth seeing. But hard to find outside of India, unfortunately.
 
Thats the difference, the calculus of blowing oneself up with a strong element of religious indoctrination is much easier to explain/justify than from a position of 'rational' self sacrifice.

The question of target is also important when considering such a dilemma, there is a distinction between political and military targets and civilians.
 
A_Wanderer said:


The question of target is also important when considering such a dilemma, there is a distinction between political and military targets and civilians.



do you really think they would have a chance to hit political and military targets?

not that you or I support terrorists






at one point in the movie

they say they wished they had airplanes to fight with.

the Israelis of course, have plenty of helicopters and planes
 
And those excuses and justifications have been echoed time and time again and for all the repetition of them the actions of the Palestinian leadership has consistently shown that terrorism is a means to gain more concessions not acts of last resort. Arafat walks away from getting everything he had wanted in 2000 and unleashes terror for no other reason than gaining that little bit more.

Regardless of what the movie says in the real world these groups represent the violent rejectionist movements that know a brilliant tactic to both strike their enemies and recieve tremendous sympathy from the international community in doing. When an Muslim Arab goes out and slaughters Israeli civilians there is always a significant section that turns around and looks at the bomber as the victim who was driven to it, the burden of responsibility is shifted onto the victims of terror.

the propaganda that is run by these groups is not that of being forced into killing innocent people because there is no other way, it is a glorification of the act of murder, instilling the idea of liberating Palestine all the way to the Medditeranian totally oblitterating Israel.

One other point really makes me ask the question, why don't Christian Palestinians resort to these tactics? They are just as occupied as Muslims, why exactly don't they go out and fetishise death, encourage their children to become "martyrs" by killing themselves?
 
A_Wanderer said:
One other point really makes me ask the question, why don't Christian Palestinians resort to these tactics? They are just as occupied as Muslims, why exactly don't they go out and fetishise death, encourage their children to become "martyrs" by killing themselves?
In principle this may be a good question, but in practice it's pretty moot really, since Christians now comprise less than 2% of the Palestinian population, according to the most recent census figures. And their relationships with Palestinian Muslims are generally pretty poor. So they have neither the numbers to support an intifada of their own, nor the connections to throw their lot in with Hamas or al-Aqsa.

We've had this discussion before, but in my view, there is plenty enough evidence out there to support the position that religious extremism is not the only sociocultural phenomenon that can readily yield an incentive to blow oneself up for a "cause."

I completely agree with you that violence quickly becomes addictive as a favored "bargaining" device, however. The what-other-choice-do-they-have argument is always a dangerously fatalistic one.
 
^ :yes:

I saw just a part of the movie, so I can't really judge it.
The thing that shocked me is how easy it is for them to turn into "martyrs-to-be"...
I mean, they are two normal people, and became terrorists... this means that everyone could be manipulated like that.

:sad:

I definetely want to see it all, also because I've seen a lot of different and strong reactions to this movie.
 
lady luck said:
^ :yes:


The thing that shocked me is how easy it is for them to turn into "martyrs-to-be"...

I mean, they are two normal people,

If people believe they no longer have a life that they can live freely.

and

If they believe others are in control of what remains of their lives

It is not surprising that they choose to take themselves out
and those they believe are their oppressors.


Many have chosen this fate


Those in the back of the plane on 911 (that went down in the field) chose to be martyrs

When Samson brought down the temple on the Philistines and himself he became a martyr.


samson.jpg
 
Last edited:
lady luck said:

I saw just a part of the movie, so I can't really judge it.
The thing that shocked me is how easy it is for them to turn into "martyrs-to-be"...
I mean, they are two normal people, and became terrorists... this means that everyone could be manipulated like that.

When you see the entire movie, this may make more sense to you.
 
Back
Top Bottom