Hollywood has never liked Arabs. Conspiracy theorists suggest this is because, “Jews run Hollywood” and they are Pro-Israeli, or some such.  I disagree, Money runs hollywood, and Arabs, unlike the Chinese, Japanese, the Irish or any other such group, have no significant purchasing power. The cinema going public like identifiable bad-guys, and a different skin colour to the good guy always helps. Add to that an alien religion that people simply don’t want to get to know or understand and you have a recipe for any Arab being a stock cartoon bad guy.

Jack G. Shaheen has a book called “Reel bad arabs: How Hollywood vilifies a people,” where he details more than 900 American flicks and the negative portrayal of Arabs therein (read a review here).  Films like “True Lies” (where Art Malik plays the stereotypical Baddie) and “Rules of engagement” (where images of Arab Men, women and children holding AK-47s shooting at the good guys in the US Army are seen) are just two in a whole catalogue of Hollywood stereotyping the Arab people.  It extends beyond hollywood.  The TV series Lost, for example, is supposed to be notable for its intelligence and astute observations, yet, of its multi-cultural cast, guess which one is the professional torturer? Yeps, the worlds second most popular show’s Arab is a torturer, and, as chance appears to have it, one of Saddam Husseins Henchmen.  He, Sayid Jarrah, was allowed his emancipation though, by a Good Guy .. an American Soldier.

 Team America, World Police, famously mocked Hollywood for being wooly and liberal.  If this crass characterisation of an entire ethnic group is “liberal”, what exactly would it be if there was no such steroetypical portrayal?

Liberal Hollywood, further, backs Israel. 38 signatories including Nicole Kidman, Michael Douglas, Dennis Hopper, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Danny De Vito, Don Johnson, James Woods, Kelly Preston, Patricia Heaton William Hurt, Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, Michael Mann, Dick Donner and Sam Raimi have signed a letter stating:

“We the undersigned are pained and devastated by the civilian casualties in Israel and Lebanon caused by terrorist actions initiated by terrorist organisations such as Hezbollah and Hamas.

“If we do not succeed in stopping terrorism around the world, chaos will rule and innocent people will continue to die. We need to support democratic societies and stop terrorism at all costs”.

Apparently willfully ignorant of the facts that, firstly, Hamas and Hezbollah are both Democraticly elected sections of their respective societies governments. The siege of Gaza and the West Bank was in operation prior to Hamas’ existence, likewise, Israels intervention in the sovereign state of Lebanon caused there to be a Hezbollah, not the other way around. Ignorant of the fact that the assault of Lebanon was a plan by Israel, not by Hezbollah, and supported by the USA and UK. Ignorant of the fact that while the whole world, Hezbollah and Lebanon included, wanted a ceasefire, the ones in favour of the war and killing and death and destruction and ethnic cleansing were not the named terrorists, rather they were the USA, the UK and Israel. In fact, these nations actively worked in direct opposition to peace, and the ending of the killings.

Liberal Hollywood sounds curiously similar to that notorious wooly liberal, George W. Bush.  It is time for people to cop themselves on!