The Others In The Israeli Cinema Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Others In The Israeli Cinema - Essay Example Women and Arabs are generally marginalized in the old and traditional Israeli films. Since 1948, the Israeli cinema has been for the most part nationalistic and characterized by ethnic rhetoric depicting the Jewish superiority over the Arab nationalists. The cinema found itself in the employ of the Zionist movement in achieving its aim to put the Jewish community and the Zionist ideals as the priorities for every Jew. Here, it became difficult for any effort to position women at the center socially and professionally and in the case of the Arabs, to treat them besides inferiors or tools in serving the Israeli agenda in themes of war and conflict. This film narrated how the Israelis are superior to their Arab counterpart through the use of comparative portrayals of women in their respective societies. Here, the Israeli pioneer women were shown to have preferred and sacrificed their beauty and comfortable lives in Europe to establish a Jewish state while an Arab woman, in Jezebel-like clothes rejected any suggestion of her abandoning her hedonistic life and wasted her time drinking and listening to music in the pioneer’s tent. The Arab woman’s portrayal would also underscore the Israeli cinema’s general perspective of women as reflected by the negative metaphors – as a barren creature or licentious figure who belonged to the desert. Later on, the female â€Å"other† would emerge as a pure mother, taking the roles of kindergarten teachers, child caregivers and so forth, who symbolized fertility.