Channel 4: Breaking The Promise
March 1, 2011 11:44 by Simon Plosker
Channel 4′s four part drama “The Promise,” has caused a great deal of concern and prompted a number of complaints to HR UK. Many historical dramas and films have been produced over the years that have been loosely based on factual narratives, taking certain liberties in order to produce more entertaining material.
The events surrounding the modern-day recreation of the State of Israel in 1947-48, however, are still a source of contention that are used as a tool to delegitimize Israel’s very existence. After all, if Israel was “born in sin”, then it is far easier to argue that the Jewish State is illegitimate.
Unfortunately, the mindset of Channel 4 and those behind The Promise, is demonstrated by the Further Reading section of the programme’s website, which refers viewers interested in learning more about the history of the conflict to sources from The Guardian and BBC.
Richard Millett is a freelance journalist in London who specialises in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Iran and the Middle East in general. Here is his critique of The Promise as originally posted on his own blog:
Channel 4 is not ‘Promising’ for British Jews.
The character of Len in The Promise (Guardian.co.uk)
Many British Jews woke up this morning feeling a little less welcome living in the UK. The overall feeling of watching the four episodes of The Promise is one of inciting racial hatred.
And it says a lot about the current UK environment that anti-Jewish propaganda is now so freely available on British tv and not just British university campuses.
Peter Kosminsky spent seven years writing The Promise but consulted avowedly anti-Israel groups like Breaking the Silence, Combatants for Peace and ISM and also British soldiers who had come under fire from Jewish military groups.
His facile conclusion is:
“The most striking thing I’m left with is a question: how did we get from there to here? Like most British soldiers we interviewed, arriving in Palestine from the war in Europe, Len Matthews felt only sympathy for the Jewish plight. Having seen the ovens of Bergen-Belsen, his heart tells him that Jews deserve a place of safety, almost at any price. In 1945, that view was shared by most of the world. In the era inhabited by Erin, his granddaughter, just 60 years later, Israel is isolated, loathed and feared in equal measure by its neighbours, finding little sympathy outside America for its uncompromising view of how to defend its borders and secure its future. How did Israel squander the compassion of the world within a lifetime?” (See a response to this here).
There was no attempt at balance or context. Jews and Israelis were portrayed as evil and the Arabs were portrayed as the good guys.
And these are the words that Len, the main British Mandate character in The Promise, writes in his diary as he departs British Mandate Palestine:
“We’ve left the Arabs in the shit. But what about the Jews and their bloody state for which they fought so hard? Three years ago I would have said give them whatever they want, they deserve it after all they have been through. Now I’m not so sure. This precious state of theirs has been born in violence and in cruelty to its neighbours. I’m not sure how it can thrive.”
Channel Four also recently showed War Child, a documentary on the aftermath of Operation Cast Lead in which “the Jews” were portrayed as going on a killing spree against Palestinian children.
And a few years ago it allowed mass murderer of his own people and Holocaust denier Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to broadcast a Chistmas speech. Then there is the anti-Israel Jon Snow who seems to split his career between reading Channel 4?s nightly news and chairing anti-Israel events.
Last night we finally found out what “the promise” of the title was all about. In 1948 Len, the British soldier, had promised, but failed, to return the key of the house owned by an Arab family he had befriended and who he ordered to flee to avoid being massacred by the oncoming Jews. 62 years later this promise was fulfilled by his grand-daughter, Erin. When she told him in his hospital bed back in the UK that she had finally returned the key he just lightly squeezed her hand before passing away without speaking.
To arrive at that point we witnessed some six hours of unmitigated demonisation of Jews; both those in British Mandate Palestine and those living in Israel today.
We watched as Erin gradually turned into a hardcore anti-Semite due to her experiences in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. She was an epileptic who suffered three seizures during the series. But the only time she fitted was when she was with Jews, never with Arabs.
The first time was in an Israeli nightclub when she collapsed on to the floor shaking uncontrollably and instead of anyone coming to help the Israelis just laughed at her.
The second time was when she was being reprimanded by the wealthy Jewish family she was staying with in Israel for bringing an Arab back to the house.
The third time was when she was confronted by three aggressive Israeli soldiers while she was trying to comfort a sick Palestinian woman who had been removed from her house just before it was about to be blown up because her family helped to shield a suicide bomber.
Meanwhile, Jews during the British Mandate Palestine era were all portrayed as brutal cold-blooded murderers with Kosminsky concentrating solely on the Irgun.
British soldiers and Arabs were constantly seen being shot by Jews, while we only see one Jew killed. Len shot a Jew dead while defending his beloved adopted Arab family.
No one would be able to comprehend from this series that almost 6,000 Jews died fighting the Arabs between 1947 and 1949, equivalent to 1% of the Jewish population of British Mandate Palestine at the time.
Nor was there any context to the Irgun’s actions. British government policy had become so anti-Jewish that the Jews were fighting for their lives.
In 1939 the British had reversed their own 1917 promise to the Jews to create a Jewish homeland. Instead only 75,000 Jews were now to be allowed to immigrate in to British Mandate Palestine over the next five years, after which the immigration numbers would be up to the Arab majority to decide. By 1949 British Mandate Palestine would effectively become another Arab state.
The Irgun put off any fighting until this five year period had expired. When there was no change in this British policy they starting fighting, which consisted of attacking buildings, not people (It was the Stern Gang, a small group of extremist Jews, who had no compunction about attacking civilians, soldiers and diplomatic figures).
The Irgun attacked the King David Hotel, as shown in The Promise, but not before, according to Menachem Begin, phoning through ignored warnings to evacuate.
In The Promise we were also shown Jews massacring unarmed Arabs in the village of Deir Yassin.
Begin claims that a warning was given to the inhabitants of Deir Yassin, so throwing away the element of surprise. He claims heavy fighting ensued and the Irgun suffered casualties of four dead and forty wounded, not as portrayed in The Promise.
Benny Morris claims that Arab radio broadcasts inflated what took place at Deir Yassin, and it was this that helped instigate the flight of the Arabs from all around the country.
But in The Promise the Arabs flee as a direct response to this “massacre” and fear of what the Jews might do to them. Again, there is no mention that up to 400,000 Palestinians did not flee.
The Promise also failed to mention La Saison when the Haganah (the main Jewish military force in British Mandate Palestine) caught members of the Irgun and handed them over to the British.
Instead, we were treated to one scene where British soldiers were shot through their heads as they sat in a military jeep outside a restaurant while rich Jewish diners just carried on eating, drinking and laughing.
Of course Kosminsky tried to promote what he thought was the Jewish/Israeli narrative.
The Promise occasionally flashed back to real scenes from The Holocaust, but there was no explanation of the Jews’ historic connection to Israel. The implication was that the Jews had stolen a country belonging to another people.
Second, Kosminsky showed two suicide bombings. The first one was just after an Israeli left-wing character had explained how the Security Wall has Arabs on both sides of it; some inside Israel proper and some inside the West Bank. The implication of the suicide bomb taking place straight after this was that the Security Wall was ineffective to stop suicide bombings and was merely a political tool used to grab more Palestinian land.
And after the second suicide bombing Erin, quite incredibly, befriends the family of the suicide bomber and even tried to stop their home being blown up by the IDF. This despite Erin not knowing the extent of the knowledge that the Palestinian family had about the intentions of their terrorist daughter.
Kosminsky also had Jewish children in the West Bank attacking Arab families with rocks while the IDF looked on and the IDF using a child as a human shield. We also saw a bulldozer almost run down Erin, recalling the death of Rachel Corrie in the same way. This is all straight out of an ISM handbook.
The Promise had everything for the Jew hater and Israel hater, but what you won’t see is a series about the Arab uprising in British Mandate Palestine between 1936-1939, which was brutally put down by the British and in which some 5,000 Arabs, 300 Jews and 260 Britons were killed and during which the Peel Commission offered the Arabs 80% of British Mandate Palestine, which the greedy Arab leadership duly rejected.
It was this that sowed the seeds for what followed and for the Arab defeat in 1948, but, as ever, why let facts get in the way of demonising Jews and Israel.
eleanor aharon
1:55 pm
Mar 01, 2011
Its not as if the British public of today is short of anti Israel propaganda, whether on the TV, media or University campuses, this has sown the seeds for even more hatred towards Israel. Kosminsky portrayed the arabs as angels and the Israelis as the devil. I could not watch all of it, as it was so obviously unbalanced and it was too hurtful to see Israel being portrayed in such an unfair way. In the not too distant future when it becomes unbearable for Jews to live in Britain, only then Kosminsky and all the other liberal jews might wake up.
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Phil
9:12 pm
Mar 01, 2011
At one time in the dim and distant past, it would have been quite ordinary for films such Exodus or Cast A Giant Shadow to be shown on UK TV but to my knowledge, they have not been broadcast for decades. With The Promise, the prospects for a drama to reflect truth and balance looked good to right this wrong… Episode One looked “Promis”-ing but after that it has been down hill in a big way… It begs the question as to who this country is trying to impress… after all, these scripts and storylines don’t just happen, they are vetted and weighed up for financialand political success… well before production starts.. I might guess that the original script was far more balanced and historically correct than the final production…
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John Smith
9:44 pm
Mar 02, 2011
it was biased, but considering Israel do well to keep the world on their side despite their blatant contempt of arabs (UN vetoes of resolutions against settlements, occupation of the west bank, the barrier deep in Palestinian territory, the Gaza blockade, etc….) I think that the overall media representation is more balanced now than before.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Luck5664
12:18 am
Mar 03, 2011
@John Smith – The Arabs are occupying the East Bank of Israel, better known as Judea and Samaria. They are formed of two distinct and different groups of Arabs in Gaza (the Egyptians) and the East Bank (Jordanians, Lebanese and Syrians) who refer to themselves under the term and bogus collective ‘Palestinians’ coined by the terrorist Yasser Arofat (once the Arabs realised that war aimed at the systematic destruction of the Hebrews were fruitless), and have as much claim to Israel as the Muslim populous in Bradford have to an independent state in the UK should they argue for one. Supporting the term West Bank, which referrs to the ‘West Bank of Jordan’, which the Jordanians don’t want incidentally, is utterly and factually incorrect, since the land resides in the East Bank of Israel, most people who can read a compass will tell you this. Supporting the incorrect word ‘Palestinian’ supposedly representing a bogus Arab collective means supporting Yasser, hence supporting terror itself. Contempt towards the Arabs due to constant wars, terror and a constant failure to recognise the state of Israel (a fundamental pre-requisite to any kind of peace) is surely understandable. The Gaza blockade, supported heavily by Egypt, is aimed at reducing rocket attacks, simple and justifiable, yet Israel still provides utilities (gas, electricity and water) and more aid than any Arab state (that incidentally is usable unlike the terror Flotilla aid that was out of date!) to the Egyptian Gazans, who return the favour with rockets. That is when they are not too busy relaxing by the beach in cafes or chilling out in the malls and enjoying the foreign aid, whilst Africans who actually need it starve. PEOPLE OF THE WORLD WAKE UP!
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walt kovacs
2:21 pm
Mar 03, 2011
kosminsky could have easily made a truly factual account of the end of the british mandate and 2005 israel, that would have brought up many questions and allowed the audience to decide if either of the 3 sides was/is correct
he chose not to
he initially said that his presentation would be balanced….yet he admitted that he weighted heavily interview sources such as the ism, breaking the silence and combatants for peace…far left groups…one (the ism) which is committed to the destruction of the state of israel.
he went so far as to recreate scenes taken from ism and b’tselem videos…then posited that these were every day occurances
his presentation of the final days of the mandate, is laughable
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fred
1:20 pm
Mar 05, 2011
i watched the promise and thought it was the best drama i’ve seen for a long time. i took it for what it was a drama not a documentary. it touched my heart not for one side or another but for all that were involved . why does everything have to be about race creed or colour. it opened my eyes and taught me a very small amount of what went on in palestine. i thought it was brilliantly written and acted throughout. i have no prejudices either way and feel for all who were involved and whose lives were affected.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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mitah mouquet
10:45 am
Mar 28, 2011
Unfortunatelly today very few people read historical facts and rely solely on tv dramas, which unfortunatelly they assume to be documentaries and real; therefore The Promise was an unbalanced drama with little historical facts, just day dreams. I agree this programme has done a lot of harm to the security of British Jews, who more and more feel uncomfortable in Britain.
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johnny
7:01 pm
Mar 18, 2011
its seems most of the media is pro arab in england. so its no surprise the promise was pro muslim. it goes way back to the turn of the century when england got in bed with the muslims and their oil. sure england made the balfour declaration as a sop for jews who backed britain in first world war. but it was not worth the paper it was printed on. england soon ratted on the jews and changed sides. england went on to form the arab league , arab legions the muslim brotherhood. english officers even led arabs against the reborn jewish state in 1948 .the fact is the english dont like the jews .they were driven out of england in the middle ages . and but for oliver cromwell they would never have been in england..now the jews are leaving england in ever increasing numbers and are filling the west bank formerly ancient judea and samaria
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Ali Abdul-Rahim
12:30 am
Apr 04, 2011
The Prmise did not show eough of the brutality of the Israelis. I wish every free unbiased human can read my book which I just published in USA title “Palestine & I”. The horrors
I personally witnessed first hand massacres committed by the Israelis against
women and chlidren is unforgetable. Our quarter where we used to live was adjacent to the Jewish quarter. The Irgun, the Israeli terrorist group started to bomb and dynamite our houses
at night so we all moved away and rented accomodation. I was 16 then and preparing for my Matriculation high diploma. My cousin,married aged around 70 and had a son and three
daughters asked me to accompany her to her house to tak some olive oil. There we went and while she was trying to open the door an Israeli terrorist shot her in the knee with a dom dom. I carried her to hospital and had to walk three miles before arriving there. She must have lost a lot of blood and was announced dead upon arrival. The Israelis were raining us with local made rockets. I have seen one that did not explode. It was a cylinder 75 cm long and 15cm diamater. One of those rockets fell on 23 young children while they were playing marbles and we has to collect their hands, feet and other small pieces in sacks. On aother occasion my friend Waleed and I were chasing each other and I was some 30 yards in front of him. heard an explosion behind me and when I lookd back my friend was not there. I
want back to see his body was torn to pieces not bigger than my fist and stuck to a wall.
In 1948 we walked more then 10 miles to safety. I mean by all the arab population of twenty
two thousand were on the run except few who were unble to move. One was cousin aged
aroun 45 who refused to leave his father of 84 and uncle of 86, They were captured by the
Israelis and the younger man was shot infront of his father and uncle after sevn days of
torture and the two old men where taken to the borders with Lebanon and were told to tell
evryone what they witnessed.I became a steteless Paestinian refugee until I was 51 when
I came to England holding a degree in Law and was naturalized .My gratitude to the British
government and the British people will never diminish from my mind, my wife’s and four
sons. I am 80+ now and told my sons to bury me in Palestine on a hill facing the lake of
Gallilee where I was borne when they return to Palestine. This is only a sample of what I
went through and apologize for the gloomy picture of the Palestinian people.
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malaka
3:15 pm
Jun 16, 2011
As a Sri-Lankan and defeating the world most notorious and Barabric Terrorist group the LTTE in a war which lasted over 30 years.. one feels safe again not to fear suicide bombings and walk freely and just live.. But recently I have seen the CH4 biased againt Sri-lanka and its pro Terrorist view and call for justice for the Terrorist.. In a recent docu-drama narrated by Jon Snow who sent the agenda by stateing much earlier that this is to focus on the Government.. one has to wonder the issue of what ever happend to Netural Journalism.. until we see by Jon snows own blog comments ‘OK, so I’m biased. I shall be supporting the underdog ‘..’I like the concept of bias. Because I think bias is at the root of many of our woes and is an endemic element of the human condition’
‘There is no such thing as neutrality. The human is not a neutral animal; indeed this is what distinguishes us from the rest of the animal condition. We think, we reason, and we conclude, as individuals. Any journalist who tells you he or she is neutral, is biased against reality.’ one wonders if mr Snow and CH4 viwes over 30 years of Terror upon a civilian population http://www.defence.lk/LTTE/20110603MOT_4.asp why would one continue to support the Under dog.. And no doubt by reading this Blog Mr Snow also clearly has a problem with Israel…which is why he kept mentioning the point that the Lankan Airforce main supplier is Isreal since we lankan purchase all our Kafir jets and ariel weapons from Isreal and also china and russia.. yet Mr snow never mentions how the west always supplies the terrorist sorry the under dog with weapons and money..and never stops the recruiment of Terrorist in the west.. Mr Snow also forgets to mention how the ariel cameras of the Kafir Jets showed the world how the terrosit or Under dog as he puts it uses civilians as humas shield via gun point… CH4 is very clever to introduce footage and then give a emotinal narration.. even thoug its not ture yet it does its evil in the minds of people who deos not see pass their emotions and what the story teller who well in advance sets the ageenda on the side of the under dog…
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malaka
11:36 am
Jun 21, 2011
CH4 and Bias journalist let see what Jon snow Thinks??? OK, so I’m biased. I shall be supporting the underdog
‘I like the concept of bias. Because I think bias is at the root of many of our woes and is an endemic element of the human condition’
‘There is no such thing as neutrality. The human is not a neutral animal; indeed this is what distinguishes us from the rest of the animal condition. We think, we reason, and we conclude, as individuals. Any journalist who tells you he or she is neutral, is biased against reality.’
http://blogs.channel4.com/snowblog/ok-so-im-biased-i-shall-be-supporting-the-under-dog/9824
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Thomas Black
1:33 am
Oct 03, 2011
Britain has clearly become the European center of anti-Israel propaganda, and all its TV channels are supporting the Palestinian narrative. Kosminsky is simply playing his part in this development. It will be interesting to see if the future Islamic Republic of Great Britain will see him as a hero or expel him as an infidel.
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john auger
12:20 pm
Feb 01, 2012
Why is it that people insist that the UK is a future Islamic Republic because they no longer blindly swallow the hollywood vision of Israel (EXODUS, N.C.I.S ETC) They should worry that because of the Israeli lobby the USA will end up as the lone supporter of Israel instead of being an honest broker for peace. With out the American tax dollars Israel would have to come to the peace table AND make peace instead of propaganda. the film “‘The Promise” does attempt to show that Israel is not all ways the victim.
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Lower Sixth: Hope it went well today. Time to start thinking about next year. | A level History at St.Lawrence College
3:42 pm
May 22, 2013
[...] Criticism of The Promise [...]
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