Friday, March 06, 2009

Banned in the United Arab Emirates

Since Purim is just around the corner, I thought I would post the Israeli cartoon which has the Arab world's outrage meter moving. In fact, the UAE has taken steps to ban any transmission of Ahmed and Salim into the counry. Episode 1



Frack 'um if they can't take a joke.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks... we've been discussing propaganda in the bunker and you've provided a couple of really good examples.

K. Shoshana said...

Well, what can I say? I’m a ‘giver’. Although, you do recognize Ahmed & Salim as satire rather than propaganda – nu?

Anonymous said...

Sure it's satire, in much the same way that a cartoon about a Hebrew speaking bulldozer operator wearing a yarmulke, who can't seem to destroy the right houses, or the right olive grove, and would rather be playing Guitar Hero anyway, is satire.

Would you, or others, consider that particular cartoon to be propaganda or satire?

K. Shoshana said...

Israelis satirize themselves on a far more regular and savage basis - even vis a vis the Palestinian conflict than most located outside Israel even begin to recognize or acknowledge.

An Israeli kippah wearing bulldozer operator who would rather be playing guitar hero and couldn’t find the right house or olive grove and who consistently bulldozed the wrong ones would certainly not be out of the realm of possibilities in Israeli satire or even in Israeli television/cinema.

In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn the hugely popular Eretz Nehederet will probably make use of a variation in it in an upcoming episode. Of course, the Kippah wearing bulldozer operator will no doubt also be a ‘settler’ and instead of ‘guitar hero’ he will want to go home and play Halo 3 or Gears of War. Will there be some Israelis who will be offended by it? Absolutely, as the 2 Jews-3 opinion rule is ingrained in the Jewish psyche much like the principle of Murphy’s law is for the Irish.

Anonymous said...

My point Kateland is that it is propaganda presented via satire, satire has been used as propaganda for as long as history has been recorded - witness the very (very) old satire upon Bres the Beautiful that ended his kingship.

The fact that it is satire does not negate the fact that it is anti-Arab propaganda.