Molly & Beenita on "Planet of the Arabs"

We travelled to the Jewish Community Center to view a trailer of a film and participate in a discussion that was part of a larger project put on by the JCC entitled The Other Israel. The aim of the film, and the project as a whole, was to examine the role of the Arab Israelis in modern day Israel. This particular film combined many clips from popular movies and television shows to create a faux movie trailer for Planet of the Arabs. The main idea was to show how Arabs, Islam, and the associated culture are portrayed in the media and how the media perpetuates a stereotype of these people:

A line of men, with black bags over their faces and guns slung over their shoulders, walk through the aisle of an airplane. Heads poke out from behind the red seats to peer at the men. An Arab man, in a white suit and white tie with a red button-down shirt and a red handkerchief, stands up from his seat. He takes out two guns and spreads his arms out across the aisle. He screams, "This is a hijack!" Instantly the scene changes to a man dressed in all-black Arabian garb. The man rides through the sand dunes on a dark colored horse. The camera focuses on the man's head tilted to one side and narrows in on the evil look in his eyes. The shot changes again. Planet of the Arabs appears across the screen.

Planet of the Arabs is a montage of different scenes taken from American movies ranging from 1896 to 2000. The nine-minute feature displays an acute dramatization of how Arabs are depicted in American cinema. In addition, the feature demonstrates some of the stereotypes projected to the average American populous; to fear and despise Arabs in the real world. According to Dr. Jack Shaheen the author of the book Reel Bad Arabs, "Out of 1000 films that have Arab and Muslim characters (from the year 1896 to 2000) 12 were positive depictions, 52 were even handed and the rest of the 900 plus were negative."

While viewing this short film we were asked to consider, what are some of the stereotypes that we have heard? What do these clips show? What the clips did not show, was there any sense of culture or family amongst the Arab people? All audience members claimed to witness is a display of violence and religious fundamentalism. With this in mind one begins to wonder, where do these stereotypes come from? Are they true? If the media only ever portrays them this way, how is the general populace likely to act around Arabs?

YOU CAN VIEW "PLANET OF THE ARABS" HERE --> http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-600397827976179049