Goran Hugo Olsson's film is both a revelatory historical document and a fascinating dissection of supposedly objective journalism
www.thenationalnews.com
Really interesting read. ( snippets taken. Read the whole thing )
Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958 – 1989 is a document of war – not just of regional conflict, but of narrative. It is made up of footage from dozens of individual reports that once aired on
Sweden’s national public television broadcaster SVT, stitched together with little context added and almost no editorial comment.
But behind each segment is a clear author, each with their own judgments, preconceptions and ideology – though they were each presented as objective. And each used their state’s leading platform to shape Sweden's public opinion, the power of which is difficult to calculate, a paradigm that was seemingly repeated across the world.
Early on, the reports approach euphoria at Israel’s existence. In 1960, for example, a report entitled
Israel – Land of Wonders aired, in what we are told was a five-part film series by Lars-Eric Kjellgren.
It is a portrait of a utopia, narrated by a young woman who emigrated to Israel from Sweden in 1948, when it was founded. She walks through co-operative markets where fresh goods are affordable and readily available, and state-of-the-art hospitals where care is free.
Moments later, the narrator wonders just how extraordinary this place is, which reflects “the fusion of one million immigrants from 102 different countries, speaking 72 different languages in a moral and cultural unity. A world was in doubt, but the wonder is a fact”.
There is no mention of Palestinians to be found in the story that Kjellgren told, the many people who once tilled that same soil and called that land home for countless generations. There is no mention of the
Nakba that drove them out of their homes, nor the tens of thousands who reportedly died. There is no mention of the way that even Israeli immigrants themselves were not all treated equally at the time, according to other reports in the same film.
The whiplash is palpable, even among reports that feature only Israelis. One documents a picnic of Israelis of North African descent, who have come together to keep their cultural traditions alive. In another, other Israelis of Arab origin are shown to be living in abject poverty, lamenting the fact that opportunity and help from the state only comes to those of European descent, though they were invited to the country with promises of equality.
In some, Palestinians are referred to as terrorists with barely acknowledged humanity. In others, they are presented as freedom fighters, with those holding rifles and battle scars given the opportunity to explain their perspective during conflict.
In one report from the 1970s, an SVT producer interviews a voice of dissent within Israel, who laments that then-Prime Minister
Golda Meir’s rhetoric about Palestinian birth rates was akin to Nazi rhetoric in the 1920s, and that if it is to go unchecked, it could put his country on a similar path. In a subsequent report, Meir repeats this same rhetoric unchallenged. And in another startling moment, Ben-Gurion says something to similar effect, which causes the Swedish interviewer to laugh in apparent agreement.
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www.theguardian.com
