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Monday, October 17, 2022

Palestinian political violence

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_political_violence

Arab military volunteers in 1947
Arab military volunteers in 1947

Palestinian political violence refers to acts of violence or terror motivated by Palestinian nationalism. Common political objectives include self-determination in and sovereignty over Palestine, the "liberation of Palestine" and recognition of a Palestinian state, either in place of both Israel and the Palestinian territories, or solely in the Palestinian territories. More limited goals include the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israel and to achieve a Palestinian right of return. Personal grievances, trauma, or revenge against Israel are widely maintained to form an important element in motivating attacks against Israelis.

Palestinian groups that have been involved in politically motivated violence include the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), Fatah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command (PFLP-GC), the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Abu Nidal Organization, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Hamas. The PLO officially renounced terrorism in 1988, and Fatah says it no longer engages in terrorism, although the Authority continues to provide stipends to the families of Palestinians killed or arrested by Israel through the Palestinian Authority Martyr's Fund, payouts that according to the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs take up 7% of the Authority's national budget. Several of these groups are considered terrorist organizations by the United States government, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, New Zealand and the European Union.

Palestinian political violence has targeted Israelis, Palestinians, Lebanese, Jordanians, Egyptians, Americans and citizens of other countries. Attacks have taken place both within Israel and the Palestinian territories as well as internationally and have been directed at both military and civilian targets. Tactics have included hostage taking, plane hijacking, boat hijacking, stone and improvised weapon throwing, Improvised explosive device (IED), knife attack, shooting spree, vehicle-ramming attack, car bomb, suicide attack, assassination and various bombings.

Israeli statistics state that 3,500 Israelis have been killed and 25,000 have been wounded as a result of terrorism since the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. Israeli statistics listing 'hostile terrorist attacks' also include incidents in which stones are used as weapons and include those killed in exchanges of gunfire. Suicide bombings constituted 0.5% of Palestinian attacks against Israelis in the first two years of the Al Aqsa Intifada, though this percentage accounted for half of the Israelis killed in that period. As of 2022, a majority of Palestinians, 59%, believe armed attacks against Israelis inside Israel are an effective measure to end the occupation, with 56% supporting them.

History

Overview and context

A Jewish bus equipped with wire screens to protect against rock, glass, and grenade throwing, late 1930s
 
A demolished farmhouse in Tel Mond, Israel, after a fedayun attack.

In protest against the Balfour Declaration, which proposed Palestine as a homeland for the Jewish people, and its implementation under a League of Nations Mandate for Great Britain, Palestinians, both Muslim and Christian, from November 1918 onwards, began to organize in opposition to Zionism. By the end of Ottoman rule, the Jewish population of Palestine was 56,000 or one-sixth of the population. Hostility to Jewish immigration led to incidents, such as the riots of April 1920, the Jaffa riots of 1921, the 1929 Palestine riots, until a general Arab revolt broke out for three years, in 1936–1939, which was crushed, with the loss of 5,000 lives, by the British army. After the passing of the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine in 1947 which called for the establishment of independent Arab and Jewish States, a Palestinian Civil War broke out. On the declaration of the state of Israel, May 15, 1948, a full-scale war, involving also the intervention of neighbouring Arab states, took place, with casualties of 6,000 Israelis and, according to the 1958 survey by Arif al-Arif, 13,000 Palestinians and the exodus, through expulsion, or panicked flight, of approximately 700,000 Arab Palestinians who subsequently became refugees. In the Six-Day War, a further 280,000–360,000 Palestinians became refugees, and the remaining Palestinian territories were also occupied from Jordan and from Egypt, and later began to be settled by Jewish and Israeli settlers, while the Palestinians were placed under military administration. While historically, Palestinian militancy was fragmented into several groups, the PLO led, and eventually united, most factions, while conducting military campaigns that varied from airplane hijackings, militant operations and civil protest. In 1987, a mass revolt, of predominantly civil resistance, called the First Intifada, exploded, leading to the Madrid Conference of 1991, and subsequently to the Oslo I Accord, which produced an interim understanding allowing a new Palestinian authority, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) to exercise limited autonomy in 3% (later 17%) of the West Bank, and parts of the Gaza Strip not used or earmarked for Israeli settlement. Frustration over the perceived failure of the peace talks to yield a Palestinian state led to the outbreak of the Al Aqsa Intifada in September 2000, which ended in 2005, coincident with the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. The rise of Hamas, the use of Palestinian rocketry and Israel's control of Gaza's borders, has led to further chronic violence, culminating in a further two conflicts, the Gaza War of 2008–09 and Operation Pillar of Defense in 2012. It is estimated that since 1920, when the first riots against Jews broke out, 90,785 Arabs including Palestinians have died, and some 67,602 been wounded in all wars and conflicts between Israel and its neighbors. On the other hand, 24,841 Jews and Israelis have died and 35,356 have been wounded during the same period. Since 1967, some reports estimate that some 40% of the male population of the West Bank and Gaza have been arrested or detained in Israeli prisons for political or military reasons.

British-mandated Palestine (1917–1947)

Violence against the Jews in Palestine followed the Balfour Declaration in November 1917 which stimulated Jewish migrants to settle in Palestine. At this time the Arabs were both geographically and demographically dominant compared to the Jewish population, where the majority of Arabs were distributed throughout the highlands of Judea, Samaria and Galilee and the Jewish population was scattered in small towns and rural communities. The Arabs realized that the Jewish community, due to their lower numbers, was vulnerable to attrition and less able to take casualties. Therefore, they adopted a "war of attrition" tactic which was advantageous to the more numerous Arab community.

Many the deaths were inflicted during short time spans and in a few locations. For instance, in April 1920 about 216 Jews became casualties (killed or wounded) during a single day in Jerusalem. By May 1921, the casualty rate for Jews was approaching 40 per day and in August 1929 it had risen to 80 per day. During the 1929 riots, one percent of the Jewish population of Jerusalem became casualties, in Safed 2 per cent and in Hebron 12 per cent.

During the 1920–1929 attacks on Jews were organized by local groups and encouraged by local religious leaders. As the Jewish community did not count on the British rulers to protect them, they formed the Haganah which were predominantly defensive in the 1920s.

During the Arab Revolt in the 1936–1939 period, violence was coordinated and organized by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and was directed against both Jews and the British rule. Due to the rising level of Arab violence, the Haganah started to pursue an offensive strategy.

UN Partition Plan to establishment of PLO (1947–1964)

Around 400 Palestinian 'infiltrators' were killed by Israeli Security Forces each year in 1951, 1952 and 1953; a similar number and probably far more were killed in 1950. 1,000 or more were killed in 1949. At least 100 were killed during 1954–1956. In total upward of 2,700 and possibly as many as 5,000 'infiltrators' were killed by the IDF, police, and civilians along Israel's borders between 1949 and 1956. Most of the people in question were refugees attempting to return to their homes, take back possessions that had been left behind during the war and to gather crops from their former fields and orchards inside the new Israeli state. Meron Benivasti states that the fact that the "infiltrators" were for the most part former inhabitants of the land returning for personal, economic and sentimental reasons was suppressed in Israel as it was feared that this may lead to an understanding of their motives and to the justification of their actions.

Throughout the period 1949–56 the Egyptian government opposed the movement of refugees from the Gaza strip into Israel, but following the IDF's Gaza Raid on February 28, 1955, the Egyptian authorities facilitated militant infiltration but still continued to oppose civilian infiltration. At first, Palestinians were trying to go back to their houses or to retrieve property but after 1950 these acts became much more violent and included killings of civilians in nearby cities.

After Israel's Operation Black Arrow in 1955 which came as a result of a seri of massacres in the city of Rehovot, the Palestinian fedayeen were incorporated into an Egyptian unit. John Bagot Glubb, a high-ranking British army general who worked with the Arab Legion, explained in his autobiographical history of the period how he convinced the Legion to arm and train the fedayeen for free. The Israeli government cites dozens of these attacks as "Major Arab Terrorist Attacks against Israelis prior to the 1967 Six-Day War". Between 1951 and 1956, 400 Israelis were killed and 900 wounded by fedayeen attacks.; according to the Anti-Defamation League "[i]n 1955 alone, 260 Israeli citizens were killed or wounded by fedayeen".

The Palestine Liberation Organization was founded in 1964. At its first convention in Cairo, hundreds of Palestinians met to, "call for the right of self-determination and the upholding of the rights of the Palestinian nation." To achieve these goals, a Palestinian army of liberation was thought to be essential; thus, the Palestinian Liberation Army (PLA) was established with the support of the Arab states. Fatah, a Palestinian group founded in the late 1950s to organize the armed resistance against Israel, and headed by Yasser Arafat, soon rose to prominence within the PLO. The PLO charter called for, "an end to the State of Israel, a return of Palestinians to their homeland, and the establishment of a single democratic state throughout Palestine."

Six-Day War and aftermath

Our basic aim is to liberate the land from the Mediterranean Seas to the Jordan River. We are not concerned with what took place in June 1967 or in eliminating the consequences of the June war. The Palestinian revolution's basic concern is the uprooting of the Zionist entity from our land and liberating it.

— Yasser Arafat, 1970

Due to Israel's defeat of Arab armies in the Six-Day War, the Palestinian leadership came to the conclusion that the Arab world was unable to challenge Israel militarily in open warfare. Simultaneously, the Palestinians drew lessons from movements and uprisings in Latin America, North Africa and Southeast Asia which led them to move away from guerilla warfare in rural areas towards terrorist attacks in urban environments with an international reach. This led to a series of aircraft hijackings, bombings and kidnappings which culminated in the killings of Israeli athletes during the 1972 Munich Olympic Games. The military superiority of Israel led Palestinian fighters to employ guerrilla tactics from bases in Jordan and Lebanon.

In the wake of the Six-Day War, confrontations between Palestinian guerrillas in Jordan and government forces became a major problem within the kingdom. By early 1970, at least seven Palestinian guerrilla organizations were active in Jordan, one of the most important being the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) led by George Habash. Based in the Jordanian refugee camps, the fedayeen developed a virtual state within a state, receiving funds and arms from both the Arab states and Eastern Europe and openly flouting the law of the country. The guerrillas initially focused on attacking Israel, but by late 1968, the main fedayeen activities in Jordan appeared to shift to attempts to overthrow the Jordanian monarchy.

Black September

Various clashes between the fedayeen and the army occurred between the years 1968–1970. The situation climaxed in September 1970, when several attempts to assassinate king Hussein failed. On September 7, 1970, in the series of Dawson's Field hijackings, three planes were hijacked by PFLP: a SwissAir and a TWA that were landed in Azraq area and a Pan Am that was landed in Cairo. Then on September 9, a BOAC flight from Bahrain was also hijacked to Zarqa. The PFLP announced that the hijackings were intended "to pay special attention to the Palestinian problem". After all hostages were removed, the planes were dramatically blown up in front of TV cameras.

A bitterly fought 10-day civil war known as Black September ensued, drawing involvement by Syria and Iraq, and sparking troop movements by Israel and the United States Navy. The number of people killed on all sides were estimated as high as 3,500, other sources claiming it to be as high as 20,000.

Battles between Palestinian guerrilla forces and the Jordanian army continued during the closing months of 1970 and the first six months of 1971. In November 1971, members of the Palestinian Black September group, who took their name from the civil war, assassinated Jordanian Prime Minister Wasfi al-Tal in Cairo. In December the group made an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate the Jordanian ambassador in Britain.

Relocation to Lebanon and Lebanese Civil War

In the aftermath of Black September in Jordan, many Palestinians arrived in Lebanon, among them Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). In the early 1970s their presence exacerbated an already tense situation in Lebanon, and in 1975 the Lebanese Civil War broke out. Beginning with street fighting in Beirut between Christian Phalangists and Palestinian militiamen, the war quickly deteriorated into a conflict between two loosely defined factions: the side wishing to preserve the status quo, consisting primarily of Maronite militias, and the side seeking change, which included a variety of militias from leftist organizations and guerrillas from rejectionist Palestinian (nonmainstream PLO) organizations. The Lebanese civil war lasted until 1990 and resulted in an estimated 130,000 to 250,000 civilian fatalities and one million wounded.

Charred remains of the bus hijacked and burnt by Palestinian militants in 1978 in the Coastal Road massacre

After Black September, the PLO and its offshoots waged an international campaign against Israelis. Notable events were the Munich Olympics massacre (1972), the hijacking of several civilian airliners (some were thwarted, see for example: Entebbe Operation), the Savoy Hotel attack, the Zion Square explosive refrigerator and the Coastal Road massacre. During the 1970s and the early 1980s, Israel suffered attacks from PLO bases in Lebanon, such as the Avivim school bus massacre in 1970, the Maalot massacre in 1974 (where Palestinian militants massacred 21 school children) and the Nahariya attack led by Samir Kuntar in 1979, as well as a terrorist bombing by Ziad Abu Ein that killed two Israeli 16-year-olds and left 36 other youths wounded during the Lag BaOmer celebration in Tiberias. Following the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, called "Operation Peace for Galilee" by the IDF, and the exile of the PLO to Tunis, Israel had a relatively quiet decade.

International terrorism and internal struggles in 1980s

Mass internal executions of members of the Abu Nidal Organization and their families were conducted by Abu Nidal and his key associates in 1987–1988. The number of executed is estimated at 600 people, mostly Palestinians, done in several separate locations in Syria, Lebanon and Libya.

First Intifada (1987–1993)

Palestinian rioters in Qalandiya throw rocks from behind an ambulance during a riot as part of the "Nakba" protests.

The First Intifada was characterized more by grassroots and non-violent political actions from among the population in the Israeli occupied Palestinian territories. A total of 160 Israelis and 2,162 Palestinians were killed, including 1,000 Palestinians killed by other Palestinians under the accusation of being collaborators. The Intifada lasted five years and ended with the signing of the Oslo Accords. The strategy of non-violence, though widespread among Palestinians, was not always adhered to, and there were youth who threw molotov cocktails and stones, with such violence generally directed against Israeli soldiers and settlers.

There were two attacks that represented new developments in terms of political violence inside Israel in this period. The first Palestinian suicide attack took place on July 6, 1989, when a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad boarded the Tel Aviv Jerusalem bus 405. He walked up to the driver and pulled the wheel to the right, driving the vehicle into a ravine, killing 16 people. The end of the intifada also saw the first use of suicide bombing as a tactic by Palestinian militants. On April 16, 1993, Hamas carried out the Mehola Junction bombing, in which operative Saher Tamam al-Nabulsi detonated his explosives-laden car between two buses. One person, a Palestinian, other than the attacker was killed, and 21 were wounded.

Oslo Accords to Camp David Summit (1993–2000)

Bus after 1996 terror bombing in Jerusalem

The years between the intifadas were marked by intense diplomatic activity between Israel and Palestinians as well as the creation of the Palestinian National Authority. In this period, suicide bombings of Israeli buses and crowded spaces as a regular tactic, particularly by Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Attacks during this period include the Beit Lid massacre, a double-suicide bombing at a crowded junction that killed 21 people, and the Dizengoff Center massacre, a suicide bombing outside a Tel Aviv shopping mall that killed 13 people.

Second Intifada (2000–2005)

Bus after 2003 terror bombing in Haifa

According to B'Tselem, as of July 10, 2005, over 400 members of the Israeli Security forces, and 821 Israeli civilians have been killed by Palestinians since the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, 553 of whom were killed within the 1949 Armistice lines, mainly by suicide bombings. Targets of attacks included buses, Israeli checkpoint, restaurants, discothèques, shopping malls, a university, and civilian homes. During the Second Intifada alone 1,137 Israelis were killed by Palestinians, according to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs (counted since September 29, 2000, retrieved at December 26, 2007).

In October 2000 a Palestinian mob lynched two non-combatant Israel Defense Forces reservists, Vadim Nurzhitz (sometimes spelled as Norzhich) and Yossi Avrahami (or Yosef Avrahami), who had accidentally entered the Palestinian Authority-controlled city of Ramallah in the West Bank. The brutality of the event, captured in a photo of a Palestinian rioter proudly waving his blood-stained hands to the crowd below, sparked international outrage and further intensified the ongoing conflict between Israeli and Palestinian forces.

Suicide bombings and attacks on civilians

A spate of suicide bombings and attacks, aimed mostly at civilians (such as the Dolphinarium discotheque suicide bombing), was launched against Israel and elicited a military response. A suicide bombing dubbed the Passover Massacre (30 Israeli civilians were killed at Park hotel, Netanya) climaxed a bloody month of March 2002, in which more than 130 Israelis, mostly civilians, were killed in attacks. Israel launched Operation Defensive Shield. The operation led to the apprehension of many members of militant groups, as well as their weaponry and equipment. 497 Palestinians and 30 Israelis were killed during Operation Defensive Shield.

In 2004, 31 people were killed and 159 others were wounded in a simultaneous attack against multiple tourist destinations in Egypt. Of the dead, 15 were Egyptians, 12 were from Israel, two from Italy, one from Russia, and one was an Israeli-American. According to the Egyptian government, the bombers were Palestinians led by Iyad Saleh, who had tried to enter Israel to carry out attacks there but were unsuccessful.

2005–present

Grad rocket fired from Gaza hits Southern Israeli city of Beer Sheva and destroys a kindergarten classroom

In the mid-2000s Hamas started putting greater emphasis on its political characteristics and strengthened its popularity amongst Palestinians. In 2006 Palestinian legislative elections Hamas won a majority in the Palestinian Legislative Council, prompting the United States and many European countries to cut off all funds to Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, insisting that Hamas must recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept previous peace pacts.

After the Israel's unilateral disengagement plan in 2005 and the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections Hamas took control over all the Gaza Strip in June 2007 in a bloody coup. Palestinian militant groups in the Gaza strip increased the firing of Qassam rockets, mortars and Grad missiles on southern Israel. Attacks continued outside the Gaza strip perimeter, including the attack that resulted in the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit being captured and held in the Gaza Strip for over five years.

Hamas has made use of guerrilla tactics in the Gaza Strip and to a lesser degree the West Bank. Hamas has adapted these techniques over the years since its inception. According to a 2006 report by rival Fatah party, Hamas had smuggled "between several hundred and 1,300 tons" of advanced rockets, along with other weaponry, into Gaza. Some Israelis and some Gazans both noted similarities in Hamas's military buildup to that of Hezbollah in the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.

Hamas has used IEDs and anti-tank rockets against the IDF in Gaza. The latter include standard RPG-7 warheads and home-made rockets such as the Al-Bana, Al-Batar and Al-Yasin. The IDF has a difficult, if not impossible time trying to find hidden weapons caches in Palestinian areas – this is due to the high local support base Hamas enjoys.

During the Gaza War (2008–09), Palestinian militant groups fired rockets aimed at civilian targets which struck the cities of Ashdod, Beersheba and Gedera. The military wing of Hamas said that after a week from the start, it had managed to fire 302 rockets, at an average of 44 rockets daily. 102 rockets and 35 mortars were fired by Fatah at Israel. Over 750 rockets and mortars were fired from Gaza into Israel during the conflict wounded 182 civilians, killing 3 people, and causing minor suffering to another 584 people suffering from shock and anxiety. Several rockets landed in schools and one fell close to a kindergarten, all located in residential areas. The UN fact finding mission stated that this constituted a deliberate attack against the civilian population and was unjustifiable in international law.

In 2012, terror attacks against Israelis in the West Bank increased compared to 2011. The number of terror attacks in the West Bank increased from 320 in 2011 to 578 in 2012. The attacks mainly involved rock throwing, Molotov cocktails, firearms and explosives.

In 2013, Hamas stated that the "kidnapping of IDF soldiers is at the heart of Palestinian culture."

Involvement of governments

Israeli officials and other political figures have harshly criticized what they regard as Palestinians inciting violence against Jews and Israel.

Palestinian Authority TV has been accused of glorifying terror. In 2011, Israeli PM Benyamin Netanyahu stated that the incitement promulgated by the Palestinian Authority was destroying Israel's confidence, and he condemned what he regarded as the glorification of the murderers of the Fogel family in Itamar on PA television. The perpetrator of the murders had been described as a "hero" and a "legend" by members of his family, during a weekly program.

Isi Leibler wrote in the Jerusalem Post that Mahmoud Abbas and his chief negotiator Saeb Erekat deny Israel's right to exist and promote vicious hatred against Jews, in statements made in Arabic. He claimed that the state-controlled Palestinian media praised the murders committed by Palestinians. Abbas al-Sayed who perpetrated the Passover suicide attack at the Park Hotel in Netanya which killed 30 civilians was described by Abbas as a "hero" and "symbol of the Palestinian Authority."

Following the Itamar massacre and a bombing in Jerusalem, 27 US senators sent a letter requesting the US Secretary of State to identify the administration's steps to end Palestinian incitement to violence against Jews and Israel that they said was occurring within the "Palestinian media, mosques and schools, and even by individuals or institutions affiliated with the Palestinian Authority."

The United Nations body UNESCO stopped funding a children's magazine sponsored by the Palestinian Authority that commended Hitler's killing of Jews. It deplored this publication as contrary to its principles of building tolerance and respect for human rights and human dignity.

Palestinian Media Watch reported that the Palestinian Authority spent more than $5 million a month paying salaries to Palestinians and Israeli Arabs imprisoned in Israel for terror crimes. They also stated that groups in a summer camp for children sponsored by PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad were named after militants: Dalal Mughrabi, who led the Coastal Road Massacre; Salah Khalaf, head of Black September that carried out the Munich massacre; and Abu Ali Mustafa, the general secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine who perpetrated many attacks. Saddam Hussein, the leader of Iraq, donated $25,000 to the families of suicide bombers, and $10,000 to the families of Palestinian civilians killed by the Israeli military.

After Israel agreed to hand over the bodies of dead Palestinian suicide bombers and other militants as part of what the Israeli Government described as 'a humanitarian gesture' to PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas to help the peace process, the Palestinian Authority planned a national rally to honour them and to provide full military funerals. The bodies included the suicide bombers that perpetrated the bus bombing in Jerusalem's Shmuel Hanavi neighborhood which killed twenty-three people, many of them children, and the attacker in the Cafe Hillel bombing. Israel will also return the remains of the bombers that committed the bombings on two buses in Beersheba in 2004 killing 16 people, the Stage night club bombing, the attack on the open-air Hadera market as well as the attackers of the Savoy Hotel in Tel Aviv who killed eight hostages. The Palestinian Authority and Hamas both planned official ceremonies and PA president Abbas attended a ceremony at his Muqataa compound. Prisoners Affairs Minister Qaraqi called on Palestinians for a day of celebration. The rally in honor of the dead will be attended by PA President Mahmoud Abbas, PLO leaders, and families of the dead militants. The dead are considered martyrs by Palestinians, but viewed as terrorists by Israelis.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has been accused of incitement to violence, on the basis of a statement he made concerning youths injured in defending the Haram al Sharif/Temple Mount from what Palestinians have seen as attempts to alter the status quo. he declared in September 2015: "“Every drop of blood spilled in Jerusalem is pure, every shahid [martyr] will reach paradise, and every injured person will be rewarded by God."."

Use of women and children by terrorist groups

Bloody child's shoe after Palestinian attack on an Israeli shopping mall

In the 1930s, the emergence of organized youth cadres was rooted in the desire to form a youth paramilitary. It was believed that armed youth might bring an end to British hegemony in the Middle East. Youth were cajoled into violence by Palestinian political figures and newspapers that glorified violence and death. The Palestinian Arab Party sponsored the development of storm troops consisting solely of children and youth. A British report from the period stated that "the growing youth and scout movements must be regarded as the most probable factors for the disturbance of the peace".

As a youngster, Yasir Arafat led neighborhood children in marching and drills, beating those who did not obey. In the 1940s, Arafat's father organized a group of militants in Gaza which included Yasir Arafat and his brothers. The leader, Abu Khalid, a mathematics teacher in Gaza, gave Arafat the name Yasir in honor of the militant Yasir al-Bireh.

Modern

Child suicide bombers

According to researcher Vamik Volkan, most suicide bombers in the Middle East are chosen as teenagers, educated, and then sent off to blow themselves up when they are in their late teens or early to mid-twenties. There have been instances where Palestinian children were involved in attacks, either as child suicide bombers or bomb transporters. On March 16, 2005, an Israeli border guard found a bomb in the school bag of 12-year-old Abdullah Quran at a military checkpoint near Nablus. His life was saved only because a cell phone rigged to detonate the 13-pound bomb failed to set off the explosive at the checkpoint as it had been designed to do. Eight days later, on 24, March 16-year-old Hussam Abdo was captured wearing an explosive belt, having allegedly been paid by Fatah's Tanzim branch to blow himself up at the same checkpoint. According to the Israel Defense Forces, from September 2000 through 2003, 29 suicide attacks have been carried out by youth under the age of 18, and, more than 40 youths under the age of 18 were involved in attempted suicide bombings that were thwarted.

Human shields

According to the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, Hamas is launching rockets inside schools to use the death toll as a media stunt and deter Israel from attacking Gaza. This tactics is usually referred to as the Human Shield.

Involvement of women

Women in particular have increasingly associated political violence with expanded citizenship rights due to the perceived failure of nonmilitaristic tactics to achieve political goals, primary amongst these, the achievement of Palestinian autonomy.

The profile of the female Palestinian suicide bombers has been the subject of study by Katherine VanderKaay, who presented her profiling of the subjects at the American Psychological Association's annual meeting. While the first suicide bombing undertaken by a Palestinian took place in 1994, the first female suicide bomber from among Palestinian society did not emerge until January 2002. The bomber was Wafa Idris, a 28-year-old paramedic and a supporter of secularist parties.

Violence against civilians

Qassam rockets fired at Sderot

According to B'Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, 500 Israeli civilians were killed by Palestinians from September 29, 2000, to March 31, 2012, in Israel, and another 254 Israeli civilians were killed in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

B'tselem reported that the main argument used to justify violence against civilians is that "all means are legitimate in fighting for independence against a foreign occupation". B'Tselem criticized this argument, saying it is completely baseless, and contradicts the fundamental principle of international humanitarian law.

"According to this principle, civilians are to be protected from the consequences of warfare, and any attack must discriminate between civilians and military targets. This principle is part of international customary law; as such, it applies to every state, organization, and person, even those who are not party to any relevant convention."

B'Tselem further noted that Palestinian spokespersons distinguish between attacks inside Israel proper and attacks directed at settlers in the Occupied Territories, stating that since the settlements are illegal and many settlers belong to Israel's security forces, settlers are not entitled to the international law protections granted to civilians. Human rights group B'tselem rejected this argument, and stated:

"The illegality of the settlements has no effect at all on the status of their civilian residents. The settlers constitute a distinctly civilian population, which is entitled to all the protections granted civilians by international law. The Israeli security forces' use of land in the settlements or the membership of some settlers in the Israeli security forces does not affect the status of the other residents living among them, and certainly does not make them proper targets of attack. B'Tselem strongly opposes the attempts to justify attacks against Israeli civilians by using distorted interpretations of international law. Furthermore, B'Tselem demands that the Palestinian Authority do everything within its power to prevent future attacks and to prosecute the individuals involved in past attacks."

Rocket attacks within the green line

Israeli boy crippled by Palestinian rocket fire.

Palestinian rocket and mortar attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip have occurred since 2001. Between 2001 and January 2009, over 8,600 rockets had been launched, leading to 28 deaths and several hundred injuries, as well as widespread psychological trauma and disruption of daily life.

The weapons, often generically referred to as Qassams, were initially crude and short-range, mainly affecting the Israeli city of Sderot and other communities bordering the Gaza Strip. However, in 2006 more sophisticated rockets began to be deployed, reaching the larger coastal city of Ashkelon, and by early 2009 major cities Ashdod and Beersheba had been hit by Katyusha and Grad rockets.

Attacks have been carried out by all Palestinian armed groups, and, prior to the 2008–2009 Gaza War, were consistently supported by most Palestinians, although the stated goals have been mixed. The attacks, widely condemned for targeting civilians, have been described as terrorism by United Nations, European Union and Israeli officials, and are defined as war crimes by human rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

Defenses constructed specifically to deal with the weapons include fortifications for schools and bus stops as well as an alarm system named Red Color. Iron Dome, a system to intercept short-range rockets, was developed by Israel and first deployed in the spring of 2011 to protect Beersheba and Ashkelon, but officials and experts warned that it would not be completely effective. Shortly thereafter, it intercepted a Palestinian Grad rocket for the first time.

The attacks were a stated cause of the Gaza blockade, the Gaza War (December 27, 2008 – January 21, 2009) and other Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip, including Operation Rainbow (May 2004), Operation Days of Penitence (2004), the 2006 Israel-Gaza conflict, Operation Autumn Clouds (2006), and Operation Hot Winter (2008).

A car hit by a rocket shot by Hamas.

Attacks began in 2001. Since then, nearly 4,800 rockets have hit southern Israel, just over 4,000 of them since Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in August 2005. The range of the rockets has increased over time. The original Qassam rocket has a range of about 10 km (6.2 mi) but more advanced rockets, including versions of the old Soviet Grad or Katyusha have hit Israeli targets 40 km (25 mi) from Gaza.

Some analysts see the attacks as a shift away from reliance on suicide bombing, which was previously Hamas's main method of attacking Israel, and an adoption of the rocket tactics used by Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

Denial of service attacks on the emergency services

There have been a number of reports in the Israeli press about denial of service attacks by Palestinians on the Magen David Adom and other emergency call lines. A spokesman said that they had received up to 2400 harassing calls per day to the Beersheba MDA office deputy Mayor of Sderot said that after investigation that Palestinians were blocking the ability of citizens to seek for help after mortar and missile attacks. According to the MDA director in the Negev some callers identified themselves as Palestinians and said that they had been paid to make the calls. The director said the calls were intended to block the MDA's ability to provide emergency services particularly during major events such as mortar attacks. As of 2006 filtering systems had been developed and deployed to handle with this type of calls, according to MDA 2008 report one filtering system recognized more than 129,000 phone calls as abusive calls.

Threats of using Chemical and Biological weapons

In a testimony given to the congress, it had been reported that Hamas was seeking to acquire chemical and biological weapons during 1990–1993.

In a statement by Director of Central Intelligence George J. Tenet before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on The Worldwide Threat in 2000: Global Realities of Our National Security, it was stated that Hamas was pursuing a capability to conduct attacks with toxic chemicals.

The plot for Passover massacre included the use of Cyanide. 4 kilos of Cyanide had been bought and prepared for a chemical attack.

In 2003, one report by the CSIS stated The Palestinian terrorist group that allegedly recruited a Canadian to carry out attacks in North America may be developing chemical weapons.

On June 26, 2006, Yedioth Ahronot published a report stating that Fatah's armed wing said it had developed biological, chemical weapons, which would be used if Israel invaded Gaza. ‘We say to Olmert, Peretz: Your threats of invasion do not frighten us. We will surprise you with new weapons you have not faced until now,’ Al-Aqsa Brigades says.

On June 29, 2006, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, claimed to have launched a single rocket with a chemical warhead against the southern part of Israel. An Israeli military spokeswoman said the army had not detected that any such rocket was fired, nor was there any report of such a weapon hitting Israel.

Israeli news reports have stated that chemical weapons, and missiles with chemical warheads from Libya have been transferred to Palestinians in Gaza, with some allegedly transferred via Sudan, although Sudanese officials have denied the accusations.

Palestinian stone-throwing

Palestinian stone-throwing is a violent political statement celebrated in the literature of the Palestinian national liberation movement. Stone throwing was the primary tactic of the First Intifada (1997 – 1993.) It encompasses the practice of throwing stones by hand and using powerful slings variously aimed at Israel security personnel, Israeli civilians, and at both civilian and military vehicles. It has resulted in the death of both Israelis and Arabs unknowingly targeted by stone-throwers.

Internal violence

B'Tselem reports that from September 29, 2000, to March 31, 2012, there were 669 Palestinians killed by Palestinians. Of those, 134 were killed for suspected collaboration with Israel.

Concerning the killing of Palestinians by other Palestinians, a January 2003 Humanist magazine article reports:

For over a decade the PA has violated Palestinian human rights and civil liberties by routinely killing civilians—including collaborators, demonstrators, journalists, and others—without charge or fair trial. Of the total number of Palestinian civilians killed during this period by both Israeli and Palestinian security forces, 16 percent were the victims of Palestinian security forces.

... According to Freedom House's annual survey of political rights and civil liberties, Freedom in the World 2001–2002, the chaotic nature of the Intifada along with strong Israeli reprisals has resulted in a deterioration of living conditions for Palestinians in Israeli-administered areas. The survey states:

"Civil liberties declined due to: shooting deaths of Palestinian civilians by Palestinian security personnel; the summary trial and executions of alleged collaborators by the Palestinian Authority (PA); extrajudicial killings of suspected collaborators by militias; and the apparent official encouragement of Palestinian youth to confront Israeli soldiers, thus placing them directly in harm's way."

Internal Palestinian violence has been called an Intrafada.

Designations of Terrorism

The United States and European Union have designated the Abu Nidal Organisation, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Palestine Liberation Front, the PFLP and PFLP-GC as terrorist organisations. A United States Congress decision from 1987 also described the PLO as a terrorist organization.

The military wing of Hamas is also designated as a terrorist organization by Israel, Canada, Germany, Japan, Jordan, the United Kingdom and Australia.

According to an Israeli NGO, if the Palestinian Authority is accepted into the International Criminal Court (ICC), it will become liable to lawsuits. In anticipation, the civil rights NGO Shurat HaDin Law Center, is collecting thousands of testimonies from Israeli victims of Palestinian terror attacks to present at the ICC. The stated aim of the campaign is to prevent the Palestinian Authority from suing Israelis for alleged war crimes at the ICC in The Hague.

Palestinian attitudes towards political violence

1995–2000

A study conducted by Mkhaimer Abusada of Al-Azhar University explored attitudes towards the use of political violence. Four questions were posed on the subject of political violence to over a thousand respondents randomly selected from localities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The first question was: "Do you support the continuing resort of some Palestinian factions to armed operations against Israeli targets in Gaza and Jericho?" Overall, 56% of respondents responded negatively. Those affiliated with leftist groups showed the highest levels of support for armed attacks against Israelis (74%), while those affiliated with parties supporting the peace process showed the lowest levels (24%). The Islamic opposition was split, with slightly over half in favor, and slightly less than half opposed.

In September 1995, survey participants were asked whether they supported, opposed or had no opinion with regard to "armed attacks against Israeli army targets," "armed attacks against Israeli settlers," and "armed attacks against Israeli civilian targets." The majority supported the use of armed attacks against Israeli military targets and settlers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Support crossed all party lines and groups, and was highest among the Islamic opposition (91% and 84%) and the leftists (90% and 89%), though a significant majority of those who supported the peace process also supported armed attacks on military targets and settlers (69% and 73%). To explain the apparent paradox in the latter position, Abusada quotes Shikaki (1996) who, "contends that Palestinian support for the use of armed attacks against Israeli military targets and settlers does not indicate 'opposition to the peace process but Palestinian insistence that the process entails an end to occupation and settlements.'" Palestinian support for armed attacks against Israeli civilian targets in Israel was 20% overall, with support being highest among those affiliated with the Islamic opposition (42%) and the leftists (32%), and lowest among supporters of the peace process (12%) and the National Independents (10%).

2000–04

A July 2001 poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy & Survey Research (PSR) found that 58 percent of Palestinians supported armed attacks against Israeli civilians inside Israel and 92 percent supported armed confrontations against the Israeli army in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. A May 2002 poll by the center found that support for bombings of civilians inside Israel dropped to 52%, but support for armed attacks against Israeli settlers remained "very high" at 89 percent. Support for armed attacks against soldiers stood at 92 percent. A poll after the 2003 Maxim restaurant suicide bombing, in which 20 Israelis were killed, found that 75 percent of Palestinians supported the attack, with support higher, "in the Gaza Strip (82%) compared to the West Bank (70%), in refugee camps (84%) compared to towns and villages (69%), among women (79%) compared to men (71%), among the young (78%) compared to the old (66%), among students (81%) compared to professionals (33%), and among supporters of Hamas (92%) compared to supporters of Fateh (69%)."

The firing of rockets from Beit Hanoun into Israel was acceptable to about three-quarters of the Palestinian public in the occupied territories, and was higher in the West Bank (78%) compared to the Gaza Strip (71%), among students (83%) compared to merchants (63%), and among supporters of Hamas (86%) compared to supporters of Fatah (73%). While firing rockets from Beit Hanoun was supported by a majority of Palestinians (75%), 59% of the residents of Beit Hanoun rejected this practice. 83% of Palestinians favored a mutual cessation of violence.

A report by the Jerusalem Media and Communication Center, a Palestinian organization, showing trends based on polls conducted since 1997, indicated that Palestinian support for military operations against Israeli targets stood at 34–40 percent in 1997–1999, climbed to 65–85 percent in 2000–2004, and dropped back to 41 percent at the end of 2004. "Military operations" were defined as including shootings, car bombs and mortar rocket attacks, but not suicide bombings. A 2005 poll by the center indicated that 53 percent of Palestinians supported "the continuation of [the] Al-Aqsa Intifada, 50 percent supported "suicide bombings against Israeli civilians", and 36 percent supported "the resumption of military operations against Israeli targets".

A 2004 study by Victoroff et al. was conducted on a group of 52 boys, all 14 years old, from the al-Shati camp in Gaza. Forty-three percent of the boys reported that a family member had been wounded or killed by the IDF, and half lived in households where the father's employment was lost following the outbreak of the Second Intifada. "Sympathy for terrorism" was found to be correlated with depression and anxiety scores, as well as with the level of "perceived oppression," and "emotional distress". Of those who felt subject to unjust treatment, 77 percent expressed sympathy for terrorism.

2005–present

Jerusalem, July 2, 2008. A Palestinian man drives a front-end loader into several vehicles in Jerusalem, killing three before being shot dead.

A March 2008 report by Palestinian Center for Policy & Survey Research (PSR) noted that the level of support for armed attack against Israeli civilians inside Israel increased significantly with 67% supporting and 31% opposed, compared to support by 40% in 2005 and 55% in 2006. A February 2008 suicide bombing that killed one Israeli woman in Dimona was supported by 77% and opposed by 19%. An overwhelming majority of 84 percent supported the March 2008 Mercaz HaRav massacre, in which a Palestinian gunman killed eight students and wounded eleven in a Jerusalem school. Support for the attack was 91 percent in the Gaza Strip compared to 79 percent in the West Bank. Similar suicide attacks in 2005 had been less widely supported, with 29% support for a suicide attack that took place in Tel Aviv, and 37% support for another one in Beersheba.

The 2009 Hamas political violence took place in the Gaza Strip during and after the 2009 Gaza War. A series of violent acts, ranging from physical assaults, torture, and executions of Palestinians suspected of collaboration with the Israel Defense Forces, as well as members of the Fatah political party, occurred. According to Human Rights Watch, at least 32 people were killed by these attacks: 18 during the conflict and 14 afterward, and several dozen more were maimed, many by shots to the legs.

In 2012, the number of militant attacks in the West Bank rose from 320 in 2011 to 578 in 2012. During that same year, 282 attacks were carried out in Jerusalem, compared to 191 in 2011. According to an annual Shin Bet report, the increase is due in part to a 68% rise of attacks using molotov cocktails. However, the number of attacks involving firearms and explosives also grew by 42%—37 compared to 26 in 2011.

Casualties

Palestinian deaths by other Palestinians since 1982.


Conflict Killed
Operation Pillar of Defense 8
Gaza War 75
Internal violence 2007–present 600
Battle of Gaza (2007) 130
Second Intifada 714
First Intifada 1,100
War of the Camps

Palestinian groups involved in political violence

Sub-groups of the PLO

Groups associated with Fatah

  • Tanzim (founded 1995)
    • Means "organization" in Arabic
    • Loosely organized Fatah militia
    • Led by Marwan Barghouti until his arrest in 2002.
  • Force 17 (early 1970s–2007)
    • Elite unit of the PLO once under Yasser Arafat's direct guidance.
    • Acts as a versatile unit for combat and intelligence-gathering.
    • Dismantled in 2007 and incorporated into the Palestinian Presidential Guard.
  • Fatah Special Operations Group (Fatah-SOG)
    • Founded in the early 1970s by Col. Abdullah Abd al-Hamid Labib
    • Also known as the Martyrs of Tel Al Za'atar, Hawari, and Amn Araissi.
    • Recently inactive (as of 2004)
  • Ahmed Abu Reish Brigade
    • Extremist offshoot of Fatah.
    • Was involved in the July 17, 2004, kidnappings in the Gaza Strip.
    • Possibly linked to the Popular Resistance Committees
    • Led by Ahmed Abu Reish
  • Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade
    • Responsible for many suicide bombings and shootings of Israeli civilians
    • Responsible for executing suspected conspirators and leaders of opposition against Arafat
    • Funded by Fatah and the Palestinian Authority
    • Offshoot of this group, Fatah Hawks, has carried out guerrilla attacks against Israeli military personnel in the Gaza Strip.
  • Black September Organization (1970–1973)
    • Began as a small cell of Fatah men determined to take revenge upon King Hussein and the Jordanian army for Black September in Jordan. Recruits from the PFLP, as-Sa'iqa, and other groups also joined.
    • Carried out Munich massacre.
    • Carried out Attack on the Saudi embassy in Khartoum
    • In 1973 two members of the Black September attacked, with sub-machine guns and grenades, at the passenger lounge at Ellinikon International Airport in Athens, Greece. Three civilians have been killed and 55 have been wounded. After the attack the gunmen took hostages, for more than two hours, before surrendering to the Greek police. Most of the casualties and injured were Greeks and Americans.

Splinter groups of the PLO

al-Qaeda linked groups

  • Army of Islam (Jaysh al-Islam)
    • Also known as the Tawhid and Jihad Brigades and al-Qaeda in Palestine
    • The group are an armed Gaza clan named Doghmush who are affiliated with al-Qaeda and Abu Qatada
  • Abdullah Azzam Brigades
  • Jund Ansar Allah (2008–)
    • al-Qaeda-affiliated group in the Gaza Strip, founded in November 2008 by Abdel Latif Moussa
    • In August 2009, the group proclaimed the creation of an Islamic emirate in Gaza and led an armed rebellion against Hamas.
    • The group's leader Abdel Latif Moussa was killed during that rebellion.
  • Fatah al-Islam (2006–)
  • Jund al-Sham (1999–2008)
    • Radical Islamist group set up by Palestinians and Syrians which operated in different areas of the Middle East.
    • The group's leader Abu Youssef Sharqieh was captured by Lebanese forces during the 2007 conflict in Palestinian refugee camps.
    • The group was disbanded in 2008 as its members joined Lebanese al-Qaeda affiliated group Osbat al-Ansar.
  • Jaljalat (2006–)
    • A Hamas-splinter organisation founded in 2006 by Mahmoud Taleb, a former al-Qassam Brigades commander, after he opposed Hamas joining the 2006 elections
    • The group is affiliated with both Jund Ansar Allah and al-Qaeda
  • Jahafil Al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad fi Filastin (2008–)

Iran linked groups

  • Sabireen Movement (2014–)
    • Leadership converted to Shiism
    • At odds with both Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad
    • Openly supports Hezbollah and Iran as well as their intervention on behalf of the Syrian Government

Sunday, October 16, 2022

United Nations in popular culture

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_in_popular_culture

The United Nations (UN) has been depicted in film, television, literature, and other media which shape popular culture. Frequent depictions of the UN involve the organization itself, UN bodies and agencies, the UN headquarters, peacekeeping activities and UN peacekeepers, and UN workers.

Films

Early years: 1945–1960

The headquarters of the UN as depicted in the 1959 film North by Northwest of Alfred Hitchcock

Hollywood established an early relationship with the UN during the latter's inception. Meeting in San Francisco in 1945 at the United Nations Conference on International Organization, several prominent Hollywood personalities, such as Darryl F. Zanuck, lobbied the conference for "world freedom of the screen, along with radio and the press". In February 1946, the United Nations General Assembly voted to establish the United Nations Department of Public Information and its Film Division, on the grounds that the UN could not achieve its goals "unless the peoples of the world are fully informed of its aims and activities". The Film Division sought to stimulate the production of films involving the UN at "little or no cost to the organization" by giving Hollywood and European film centers ideas, research materials, and scripts for potential movies.

The early connection between the world of cinema and the UN gave rise to several films where the organization was integral to the plot. In Mister 880 (1950), Dorothy McGuire portrayed a UN interpreter at Lake Success, the temporary first home of the UN. According to the producer, her role had been switched to the one of a UN interpreter "to show the inner workings of the United Nations General Assembly". In George Pal's disaster film When Worlds Collide (1951) an emergency meeting of the UN is portrayed as the world faces destruction. This was possibly the result of UN "Hollywood ambassador" Mogens Skot-Hansen urging the producer to feature the UN convening to address the disaster, as it would have done in the real world. In Andrew Marton's Storm Over Tibet (1952), the protagonist leads a UNESCO expedition to the Himalayas to return a precious religious artifact to its rightful owners. In the The Glass Wall (1953), Peter, a refugee, seeks to avoid deportation by looking for the only person who can prove the legality of his situation. The film prominently features the aesthetic of the newly constructed glass UN building, where the film culminates, and where Peter pleads his case and the ones of all refugees in front of an empty auditorium, with the glass wall of the UN building symbolizing both the hope and the obstacle to the protagonist's freedom. In Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), antagonists Lucy and Edward Drayton claim to be UN workers while in reality being agents of an Eastern European country.

The UN headquarters and organization were also prominently featured Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959). In the film, protagonist Roger O. Thornhill travels to the UN building to meet with a UN official named Townsend who works for the fictional "UNIPO". Townsend is assassinated on UN premises and Thornhill is framed for the murder, setting the film in motion. Hitchcock was not allowed to film inside the UN building, and therefore the scene where Thornhill is seen traversing the lobby is a model shot in the upper part, and a studio shot in the lower part. Some sources claim he was not allowed to film outside the UN building either, and that the scene featuring Cary Grant approaching the building was shot using cameras hidden in a van parked in the vicinity; however, according to assistant director Herbert Coleman, UN security interrupted the filming from the van, and so the scene outside the UN was secretly filmed from a building on the opposite side of the road. At any rate, the advent of the Cold War and rising skepticism against the UN by the United States and the Soviet Union help explain why United Nations secretary-general Dag Hammarskjöld denied permission to film on UN premises, preferring not to tie the increasingly gridlocked institution to a murder plot.

Pushback, gridlock and Cold War: 1960–1991

Already in the late 1950s, the Cold War and the Red Scare had left their mark on the popular representation of the United Nations in film, severely curbing it. Hollywood actress Myrna Loy, who helped found the US chapter of the UNESCO national association in 1948 and was a key internationalist figure in Hollywood circles, had to publicly protest in 1955 due to the difficulty of obtaining a passport, which she attributed to anti-UN sentiment and the accusation of being a communist fellow traveler.

The depiction of the UN in the 1960s was significantly impacted the United Nations television film series. Set to be aired to an American audience, the series comprised four television films which portrayed the United Nations in a positive light and where the UN was at the center of the plot: A Carol for Another Christmas (1964), Who Has Seen the Wind? (1965), Once Upon a Tractor (1965), and The Poppy Is Also a Flower (1966). Several months after the initial announcement of the series, thousands of protest letters from members of the right-wing John Birch Society flooded Xerox, the sponsor of the series, accusing the UN of being a communist front. CBS declined to participate citing that it would violate their policy of not airing "propaganda for a particular viewpoint", and NBC imposed strict oversight on the content and postponed the release date, ultimately only leaving ABC to air the series in the United States. All four films received mixed reviews; The Poppy Is Also a Flower won one Emmy Award for best supporting actor, and the film was released to theaters in Europe. The spy story follows UN narcotics agents on the hunt for a heroin distributor across the world.

Some superhero films of this period also feature the United Nations. In Batman (1966), the Joker, Riddler, Penguin and Catwoman kidnap the entirety of the United Nations Security Council. In Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987), starring Christopher Reeve, Superman enters the United Nations to make a speech to denounce nuclear weapons as a threat to peace and to declare his desire to eliminate them. The assembly subsequently erupts in applause. In a review, The Christian Science Monitor belittled the speech at the United Nations by comparing it to superheroes wanting media attention.

The multipolar years: 1991–present

As the world transitioned from a bipolar to a multipolar order after the end of the Cold War, the United Nations saw a revival of its functions, with depictions of the organization proliferating.

The 2000s, in particular, saw a multiplication of films depicting the UN. Of note is the first film ever allowed to film on UN grounds, Sydney Pollack's political thriller The Interpreter (2005). The film notably casts a UN interpreter, played by Nicole Kidman, who becomes entangled in a murder plot of an African leader set to deliver a speech at the United Nations. Pollack convinced UN secretary-general Kofi Annan to allow filming to happen during the weekends after a 30-minute meeting, with Annan even contributing to the script. The United Nations setting earned broadly positive reviews: Rolling Stone noted that "it's the United Nations building, pushing sixty, that turns on the charisma in its film debut — a smashing one — in The Interpreter", with Variety similarly describing the UN setting as "a spectacle to behold". Two reviews from The New York Times were more critical of the film, with A.O. Scott deploring that ethnic conflicts and geopolitical alliances were not touched upon by the film, preferring instead to limit the exposition of the UN to its architecture, and with Caryn James questioning why the UN was needed in the first place, as it adds "little except self-importance" to the film, and further pointing to "a bizarre lack of UN security". Other reviewers echoed "the lack of disappointingly slim grasp of UN life", and the fact that the movie was "so lofty as if it were made to be screened at the United Nations". The representation of the UN in the Interpreter also divides academics: Serge Sur believes that one of the facets of the UN proposed by the film is "the UN's indifference towards dictatorships", whereas for Anne Lagerwall, the film "embodies a faith in international institutions and particularly in the United Nations, which is certainly that of Sydney Pollack".

Other films were not granted the same treatment. The seemingly controversial political satire The Dictator (2012), for example, was denied filming rights on UN premises.

The role of the UN in the Rwandan genocide and Bosnian genocide, where the UN sent blue helmets but failed to prevent the violence, has also been portrayed in several films of the 2000s. In the 2001 Oscar-winning Bosnian film No Man's Land, UN peacekeepers and UN officials serve as major plot drivers, which the New York Times called a "savage portrait of nervous bureaucratic wheeling and dealing that has little regard for the lives being gambled". UN peacekeepers are also featured in the Academy-nominated Hotel Rwanda (2004), where their force withdraws in the face of escalating violence, although the UN commander's representation has been criticized as historically inaccurate. The British film Shooting Dogs (2005) similarly denounces the abandonment of Tutsi refugees by the ill-equipped, outnumbered UN peacekeepers. The Canadian war drama Shake Hands with the Devil (2007) depicts the genocide from the perspective of blue helmet Roméo Dallaire, head of the UN Assistance Mission for Rwanda. According to one reviewer, the films contrasts the impotence of Dallaire with the unused potential that the UN had in affecting the genocide and saving lives, among other actors. More recently, the 2020 Academy-nominated Bosnian film Quo Vadis, Aida? sheds light on the trauma of a Bosnian UN translator during the Srebrenica massacre, which, according to The Intercept, portrays the "cowardice of UN commanders", among other themes.

UN field workers and peacekeepers have also become increasingly the protagonists of their own films beyond genocide. In 2016, Netflix released the Siege of Jadotville, a war film that depicts the Siege of Jadotville during the Congo Crisis from the perspective of an Irish peacekeeping unit engaged there. The biopic Sergio (2020), also from Netflix, follows the life of United Nations humanitarian Sérgio Vieira de Mello in East Timor and Iraq.

The UN has continued to progressively open its locations to representation by the film industry. The United Nations Office at Vienna was chosen as the location for the signature of the Sokovia Accords, in Captain America: Civil War (2016), which is bombed during the signing of the Accord putting the Avengers under UN authority. The UN subsequently became the subject of several pieces exploring its role, mirroring the factions of the film. The academic-oriented international law blog Opinio Juris noted that the UN is portrayed "as a body that is able to enforce such a treaty which requires monitoring, arrests, detention, and prosecution of individuals", and where the UN is seen as "an all-encompassing executive-legislative- and law-enforcement-body – an international world government." In Black Panther (2018), the post-credits scene has the protagonist deliver a speech to the UN in Vienna in his quality of king of Wakanda, to announce the opening of his secretive nation to the world.

Television

Documentaries

Documentaries about the United Nations frequently document the work of individuals within the organization, the peacekeeping activities of the United Nations, or ridicule the organization. The 2017 New Zealand documentary My Year With Helen follows the unsuccessful bid of Helen Clark to become the first female UN secretary-general. Marcel Schüpbach's Carla's list similarly documents the work of female prosecutor Carla Del Ponte in bringing to justice individuals involved in war crimes and crimes against humanity in former Yugoslavia.

On the topic of the peacekeeping missions of the United Nations, Paul Cowan's documentary The Peacekeepers (2006) sheds light on peacekeepers engaged in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, whereas the documentary It Stays with You: Use of Force by UN Peacekeepers in Haiti (2017) of Cahal McLaughlin and Siobhán Wills investigates civilian deaths at the hands of UN peacekeepers in Cité Soleil, Haiti, between 2004 and 2007.

Finally, the documentary U.N. Me offers a critique of the United Nations through the travels of its filmmakers, who seek to expose the organization's shortcomings and scandals.

TV shows

Similarly to traditional films, peacekeepers play a sizeable role in the depiction of the United Nations in TV shows. In the 1987 miniseries Amerika, the Soviet Union takes over the United States through Soviet-controlled United Nations peacekeepers. Before the show aired, UN secretary-general Javier Pérez de Cuéllar and other UN officials complained to ABC about the representation of UN peacekeepers and about the use of UN emblems. The showrunners argued that it was not a contemporary representation of the UN, but one of a co-opted UN ten years in the future. UN officials later criticized the depiction of the UN as "murderers, rapists, and arsonists" and hired external legal counsel to issue seven requests for additions or removals, but ultimately decided not to take legal action to impede the airing of Amerika. The 1999 British series Warriors, directed by Peter Kosminsky, is similarly centered on the first British peacekeeping efforts in Bosnia in the early 1990s: the UN is portrayed as monolithic, dedicated to neutrality, and not deviating from the peacekeeping mission's Rules of Engagement. According to Kosminsky, his desire was to start a debate about the responsibilities of peacekeeping, given that, in Kosminsky's opinion, British peacekeepers were in Bosnia to protect humanitarian relief, not to interfere in the fighting. United Nations peacekeeping is also explored from the point of view of international criminal justice in Black Earth Rising (2018); in particular, the shortcomings of the UN peacekeeping mission in Rwanda are a subject of scrutiny.

The organs of the United Nations are also central to some TV show plots. In the American TV show The West Wing (1999–2006), the United States, where the protagonists hail from, are confronted with an impeding genocide in the fictional African state of Kundu. Canadian legal scholar Amar Khoday, noting the absence of the UN Security Council in the series, wrote that "[t]he U.N., embodied by the General Assembly, is reduced to a quivering mass of indecision and effete inaction in the face of a genocide leaving the United States as the only viable entity to respond." The UN secretary-general is also represented as a powerless, begging figure. In face of worldwide gridlock and impotence, the US decides to intervene unilaterally. In a similar inclusion of the UN in its plot, the American political drama House of Cards (2013–2018), in its third season, prominently features a plan bought forward by US President Frank Underwood to the Security Council to bring peace to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict through the deployment of a UN peacekeeping mission in the Jordan Valley. The plan is opposed by Russia at the Security Council, so Underwood decides to push the issue through the General Assembly instead. The circumvention of the Security Council, the representation of the role of the UN secretary-general (who is implied to be in control of the peacekeeping operation), of African leadership in UN peacekeeping missions, and of the influence wielded by the US ambassador to the UN were criticized as inaccurate. During filming, Russia also denied a request to shoot inside Security Council chambers.

Animated cartoons

In the Japanese mecha anime series Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, Macross, and Neon Genesis Evangelion, the United Nations plays an important role as it is depicted "either as government or supreme commander of powerful armies". In The Animatrix anime, following their planned destruction at the hands of world governments, the machines found a new state in the Middle East called Zero One, and apply for UN membership, which is soundly rejected by the Security Council. Following a war which sees the machines triumph over humanity, the machines detonate a nuclear weapon at the UN headquarters, wiping out humanity's dignitaries gathered to sign a peace accord with the machines.

Throughout the superhero cartoon series Young Justice, the Justice League is forced to deal with UN sanctions and to struggle for influence over the United Nations. The Justice League is also hindered by the election of nemesis Lex Luthor to the position of UN secretary-general.

Literature

Novels

Science fiction

Several science-fiction classics represent the United Nations in a plurality of forms. According to academic Nabil Hajjami, the UN is often represented in sci-fi literature as a "political body embodying the unity of mankind", with representations ranging from the "most cynical ultra-realism to the most committed idealism".

Among the idealist interpretations, Charles Stross' Singularity Sky (2003) describes the UN as "the sole remaining island of concrete stability in a sea of pocket polities". In Kim Stanley Robinson's Blue Mars (1996), following the catastrophic rise of sea levels due to volcanic eruptions, the United Nations "rose like some aquatic phoenix out of the chaos", spearheading and coordinating the planet's emergency efforts. In Liu Cixin's The Dark Forest, the discovery of an antagonistic and belligerent alien species offers humanity the chance to band together under a unity government headed by the United Nations, with the UN progressively taking more responsibility from national governments.

According to Hajjami, several authors of the idealist wave also see the United Nations as a tool through which humankind's material and moral resources are pooled. This is the case of one of the characters of the Isaac Asimov short story Shah Guido G, who marvels at the "extraordinary miracle" that must have witnessed the people of the Earth when the United Nations became a world government. Similarly, in Robinson's Red Mars, one of the leaders of the expedition on Mars recalls his counterparts to their duty, stating that their will is dictated by the United Nations, which represents 10 billion people, versus the ten thousand that they represent. The United Nations and international law are "how humanity in general wants to treat this planet at this time". United Nations legislation also transcends spatial distance: in Stanisław Lem's Solaris (1961), a distant planet is aware that a UN convention has banned the use of X-rays. Unsurprisingly, extraterrestrials often expect to interact with the United Nations as the supreme, unified, and legitimate polity of humanity, and are often confused about the degree of disunity and decentralization under its banner. This is the case in Stross' Singularity Sky and Bernard Werber's Third Humanity.

Realist interpretations depict the United Nations as the structure of an oppressive universalism, oftentimes the foundation for pervasive social and economic control, and the UN is defined as "alienating, oppressive and militaristic". In Joe Haldeman's The Forever War, the UN owns forty to fifty information channels, tightly regulates the world's food supply, and automatically manages worldwide social insurance from Geneva. In James S. A. Corey's Leviathan Wakes, the world currency has become the UN dollar; and the organization overcharges for postal stamps headed to the Moon, to restrict communication with what it believes is an anarchist haven. In other science fiction worlds, the UN rules in "authentic totalitarianism": in French sci-fi novel Les Dames Blanches of Pierre Bordage, the UN votes adopts a law to kill newborns, and urges its states to implement capital punishment against possible contraventions. In Larry Niven's Ringworld, the United Nations has established a fertilization committee, whose scope is to determine who can become parent and how many children couples are allowed to have. Finally, in Maurice G. Dantec's Satellite Sisters, the "UN 2.0" has become an intrusive totalitarian regime regulating every aspect of the life of individuals.

A second realist depiction of a futuristic United Nations is the capture of the organization by multinationals and conglomerates. This is the case in Robinson's Red Mars, where multinationals instrumentalize and puppeteer the United Nations, and in Alastar Reynold's Janus, where powerful firms are given seats on the Security Council of the organization that succeeds the United Nations, in parallel to China's exclusion.

As an entity, the United Nations is depicted either as a superstate with humanity as its population (Philip K. Dick, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch; Cixin's Dark Forest; Werber's Third Humanity), or as a simple coordination body (Bordage's Les Dames Blanches: Cixin's Dark Forest; Stross' Singularity Sky). The latter depiction is often coupled with the organization being "only a tool at the service of state interests" and weak (René Barjavel's The Ice People; Robinson's Red Mars; Ben Bova's Millennium).

Several prominent organs and personalities of the UN are portrayed in science fiction novels. The General Assembly is in some novels a true legislative entity with a universal mandate, at times capable of raising armies. In Haldeman's Forever War, for example, an elite military corps is raised by the General Assembly. In others, such as in Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama and Barjavel's The Ice People, the General Assembly is a chaotic, ineffective performative chamber. The architecture of the Assembly also leaves characters divided: admirative for some, and disenchanted for other. The figure of the secretary-general also receives several representations: sometimes the antagonist, such as in Isaac Asimov's Shah Guido G, where the figure of the secretary-general is dictatorial and hereditary, and sometimes mistaken as the representative of humanity by aliens, such as in Arthur C. Clarke's Summertime on Icarus. More often than not, the secretary-general mirrors the real world, in that it is represented as a male or female political figure with a nationality, ranging from the idealist to the cynic.

Finally, science fiction depictions of the United Nations depict it as a bureaucratic institution, as a corrupt institution, and underline its legal formalism. Dick, Barjavel and Dantec describe the organization as a bureaucracy. In other novels, it creates subsidiary institutions, task forces and agencies, each with their own acronyms, as soon as it faces new challenges. In Dick, Bordage and Dantec, UN officials engage in acts of corruption, and in Haldeman's Forever War, the only way to make the organization incorruptible would be to automate it, depriving it of its humanity. Finally, the legal formalism that the workers of the United Nations engage in can be found in Robert Heinlein's The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (1966), as well as in the novels of Dick, Stross, and Clarke.

Other

Beyond science-fiction, other representations of the UN have also seen the light in fiction. In Albert Cohen's Her Lover, the protagonist works for the League of Nations, the predecessor of the United Nations. Romain Gary's L'Homme à la Colombe, written under pseudonym while its author was working for the French delegation to the United Nations, offers a fictional critique of the organization. More recently, Mischa Berlinski's Peacekeeping: A Novel offers through fiction insights into the work of UN peacekeepers (and of the organization at large) in Haiti around the time of the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

Comic books

The United Nations is also a subject of a variety of portrayals in printed comics. T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents superheroes, for example, derive their acronym from "The Higher United Nations Defense Enforcement Reserves". In the comic book series Irredeemable, the United Nations collectively submits to Plutonian, a superhero turned villain. When a UN delegate from Singapore offends the Plutonian, the latter sinks the city-state into the ocean. In the Marvel universe, Iron Man is seen giving a speech at the United Nations; later, the UN disavows the Avengers' charter.

Video games

The first-person shooter Call of Duty franchise has mostly covered the United Nations in a negative light. In Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (2014), game nemesis Jonathan Irons, leader of the world's largest private military company, is granted a seat at the UN Security Council. In a speech to the UN, he declares the organization obsolete due to the world having delegated its problems to him. In Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (2016), the Earth's nations have coalesced to create the United Nations Space Alliance. A similar futuristic organization appears in Deus Ex (2000), where protagonist JC Denton works for the fictional United Nations Anti-Terrorist Coalition (UNATCO), a militant police force prominently featured throughout the game.

The government simulation browser game NationStates, which allows players to decide the political leaning of their countries, featured until 2008 a virtual United Nations body where player nations could approve global legislation. The in-game United Nations rebranded as World Assembly after the United Nations sent a cease and desist notification to the game's creator.

Music

The punk band United Nations, which formed in 2005, received several cease and desist letters from the United Nations organization and was sued for using the same name. While the lawsuit did not achieve its goals, the band's Facebook page was shut down, the band's publicist resigned, and the band's label stopped printing the band's first album. The band later released a second album, featuring the organization's cease and desist letters on its cover.

Festivus

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Festivus
Festivus Pole.jpg
Festivus pole
TypeSecular
SignificanceCelebrated as an alternative to the pressures and commercialism of the Christmas holiday season
CelebrationsAiring of grievances, feats of strength, the aluminum pole, Festivus dinner, Festivus miracles
DateDecember 23
FrequencyAnnual

Festivus (/ˈfɛstɪvəs/) is a secular holiday celebrated on December 23 as an alternative to the pressures and commercialism of the Christmas season. Originally created by author Daniel O'Keefe, Festivus entered popular culture after it was made the focus of the 1997 Seinfeld episode "The Strike", which O'Keefe's son, Dan O'Keefe, co-wrote.

The non-commercial holiday's celebration, as depicted on Seinfeld, occurs on December 23 and includes a Festivus dinner, an unadorned aluminum Festivus pole, practices such as the "airing of grievances" and "feats of strength", and the labeling of easily explainable events as "Festivus miracles". The episode refers to it as "a Festivus for the rest of us".

It has been described both as a parody holiday festival and as a form of playful consumer resistance. Journalist Allen Salkin describes it as "the perfect secular theme for an all-inclusive December gathering".

History

Festivus was conceived by author and editor Daniel O'Keefe, the father of television writer Dan O'Keefe, and was celebrated by his family as early as 1966. While the Latin word fēstīvus means "excellent, jovial, lively", and derives from fēstus, meaning "joyous; holiday, feast day", Festivus in this sense was coined by the elder O'Keefe. According to him, the name "just popped into my head". In the original O'Keefe tradition, the holiday would take place to celebrate the anniversary of Daniel O'Keefe's first date with his future wife, Deborah. The phrase "a Festivus for the rest of us" originally referred to those remaining after the death of the elder O'Keefe's mother, Jeanette, in 1976; i.e., the "rest of us" are the living, as opposed to the dead.

In 1982, Daniel O'Keefe wrote a book, Stolen Lightning: The Social Theory of Magic, that deals with idiosyncratic ritual and its social significance, a theme relevant to Festivus tradition.

It is now celebrated on December 23, as depicted in the Seinfeld episode written by the younger O'Keefe.

Seinfeld

The Seinfeld episode that featured Festivus was titled "The Strike", although O'Keefe notes that the writers later wished they had named it "The Festivus". It was first broadcast on December 18, 1997. The plot revolves around Cosmo Kramer (Michael Richards) returning to work at his old job, H&H Bagels. While dining at Monk's Restaurant, as George Costanza (Jason Alexander) is opening his mail, he receives a card from his father saying, "Dear Son, Happy Festivus." This leads to Jerry Seinfeld and Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) discussing George's father's creation of Festivus despite George not wanting it to be discussed. Kramer then becomes interested in resurrecting the holiday when, at the bagel shop, Frank Costanza (Jerry Stiller) tells him how he created Festivus as an alternative holiday in response to the commercialization of Christmas.

Meanwhile, George creates donation cards for a fake charity called The Human Fund (with the slogan "Money for People") in lieu of having to give office Christmas presents. When his boss, Mr. Kruger (Daniel von Bargen), questions George about a $20,000 check he gave George to donate to the Human Fund as a corporate donation, George hastily concocts the excuse that he made up the Human Fund because he feared persecution for his beliefs, of celebrating Festivus instead of Christmas. Attempting to call his bluff, Kruger goes home with George to see Festivus in action.

Kramer eventually goes back on strike from his bagel-vendor job when his manager tells him he cannot take December 23 off to celebrate his newfound holiday. Kramer is then seen on the sidewalk picketing H&H Bagels, carrying a sign reading "Festivus yes! Bagels no!" and chanting to anyone passing the store: "Hey! No bagel, no bagel, no bagel..."

Finally, at Frank's house in Queens, Jerry, Elaine, Kramer, and George gather to celebrate Festivus. George brings Kruger to prove to him that Festivus is "all too real".

O'Keefe was initially reluctant to insert his family's tradition into this episode, but when executive producers Alec Berg and Jeff Schaffer caught wind of the bizarre holiday through his younger brother, they became curious, then enthusiastic, then insisted it have a place in the episode. Schaffer later reflected: "That's the thing with Seinfeld stories, the real ones are always the best ones. There's a nuance to reality sometimes that is just perfect. We could have sat in a room for a billion years and we never would have made up Festivus. It's crazy and hilarious and just so funny and so disturbing. It's awesome."

Fictional practices

"Happy Festivus" embroidered on a kippah.

The holiday, as portrayed in the Seinfeld episode, includes practices such as the "airing of grievances", which occurs during the Festivus meal and in which each person tells everyone else all the ways they have disappointed them over the past year. After the meal, the "feats of strength" are performed, involving wrestling the head of the household to the floor, with the holiday ending only if the head of the household is pinned.

Festivus pole

In the episode, the tradition of Festivus begins with an aluminum pole. Frank Costanza cites its "very high strength-to-weight ratio" as appealing. During Festivus, the pole is displayed unadorned, as Frank "find[s] tinsel distracting."

Dan O'Keefe credits fellow Seinfeld writer Jeff Schaffer with introducing the concept. The aluminum pole was not part of the original O'Keefe family celebration, which centered on putting a clock in a bag and nailing it to a wall. In 2021 the Seinfeld Twitter, YouTube and other social media accounts along the environmental organization One Tree Planted tried to give a new environmental meaning to the pole, pledging to plant a tree for every person that posted a selfie along a pole using the hashtag #FestivusSavesTrees. While bringing out that using a Festivus pole instead of Christmas tree, is better for the environment because it saves a tree, the rule was also described so the pole would not have to be aluminum, but it could be any kind of pole that you already have on your house of any kind of size as in further highlighting the anti-consumerism meaning of Festivus as a Holiday.

Festivus dinner

In "The Strike", a celebratory dinner is shown on the evening of Festivus prior to the feats of strength and during the airing of grievances. The on-air meal shows Estelle Costanza serving a sliced reddish meatloaf-shaped food on a bed of lettuce. In the episode no alcohol is served at the dinner, but George's boss, Mr. Kruger, drinks something from a hip flask.

The original holiday dinner in the O'Keefe household featured turkey or ham as described in Dan O'Keefe's The Real Festivus.

Airing of grievances

The "airing of grievances" takes place immediately after the Festivus dinner has been served. In the television episode, Frank Costanza began it with the phrase, "I got a lotta problems with you people, and now you're going to hear about it!" It consists of each person lashing out at others and the world about how they have been disappointed in the past year. In 2021, CNN "experts" on mental health explained that having a tradition day where people could yearly air some of their grievances of the year to their families and friends, could actually be good for mental health and is something other holidays usually avoid. Although highlighting the importance of complaining about those that things that could have been made better, and actually changed for the better, rather than those that were out of a person's control. Blaming ourselves for our failures, rather than other people for theirs.

Feats of strength

The "feats of strength" are the final tradition observed in the celebration of Festivus, celebrated immediately following (or in the case of "The Strike", during) the Festivus dinner. The head of the household selects one person at the Festivus celebration and challenges them to a wrestling match. Tradition states Festivus is not over until the head of the household has been pinned. In "The Strike", however, Kramer manages to circumvent the rule by creating an excuse to leave. The feats of strength are mentioned twice in the episode before they take place. In both instances, no detail was given as to what had happened, but in both instances, George Costanza ran out of the coffee shop in a mad panic, implying he had bad experiences with the feats of strength in the past. What the feats of strength entailed was revealed at the very end of the episode when it took place.

Festivus miracles

Cosmo Kramer twice declares a "Festivus miracle" during the Festivus celebration in the Costanza household. Kramer causes the occurrence of two "miracles" by inviting two off-track betting bookies (Tracy Letts and Colin Malone) to dinner with Elaine (men whom Elaine wished to avoid), and by causing Jerry's girlfriend Gwen to believe that Jerry was cheating on her.

Wider adoption

Some people, many of them inspired by the Seinfeld episode, subsequently began to celebrate the holiday with varying degrees of seriousness. Allen Salkin's 2005 book Festivus: The Holiday for the Rest of Us chronicles the early adoption of Festivus. Rabbi Joshua Eli Plaut's 2012 book A Kosher Christmas: 'Tis the Season to Be Jewish' references Festivus. Martin Bodek's 2020 book The Festivus Haggadah fuses Passover with Festivus.

During the Baltimore Ravens' run to the Super Bowl XXXV Championship in 2000, head coach Brian Billick superstitiously issued an organizational ban on the use of the word "playoffs" until the team had clinched its first postseason berth. "Playoffs" was instead referred to as "Festivus" and the Super Bowl as "Festivus Maximus".

In 2005, Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle was declared "Governor Festivus", and during the holiday season displayed a Festivus pole in the family room of the Executive Residence in Madison, Wisconsin. Governor Doyle's 2005 Festivus Pole is now part of the collection of the Wisconsin Historical Museum.

In 2010, a CNN story featuring Jerry Stiller detailed the increasing popularity of the holiday, including US Representative Eric Cantor's Festivus fundraiser, and the Christian Science Monitor reported that Festivus was a top trend on Twitter that year.

In 2012, Google introduced a custom search result for the term "Festivus". In addition to the normal results, an unadorned aluminum pole was displayed running down the side of the list of search results and "A festivus miracle!" prefixed the results count and speed. Also in 2012, a Festivus Pole was erected on city property in Deerfield Beach, Florida, alongside religious-themed holiday displays. A similar Festivus pole was displayed next to religious displays in the Wisconsin State Capitol, along with a banner provided by the Freedom From Religion Foundation advocating for the separation of government and religion.

In 2013 and 2014, Chaz Stevens erected a Festivus pole constructed with 6 feet (1.8 m) of beer cans next to a nativity scene and other religious holiday displays in the Florida State Capitol Building, as a protest supporting separation of church and state. In 2015, the same man was granted permission to display a Festivus pole decorated with a gay pride theme and topped with a disco ball to celebrate the United States Supreme Court's decision on same-sex marriage, at state capitols in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Washington.

In 2016, US Senator Rand Paul released a special Festivus edition of The Waste Report. The Festivus "airing of grievances" has become an annual tradition for Paul on Twitter.

In 2016, the Tampa Bay Times became the first newspaper to allow readers to submit Festivus grievances through its website, with the promise to publish them on December 23, the day of the Festivus holiday.

An annual public Festivus celebration has been held in Pittsburgh since 2005, featuring live bands, a Seinfeld trivia contest, and holiday traditions. In 2017, the Pittsburgh City Paper called its 13th iteration "the longest-running celebration of Sein-Culture in the 'Burgh".

In 2018 Wollongong City Council (New South Wales, Australia) named a lane "Festivus Lane" in the suburb of Corrimal. The name was chosen as the celebration Festivus started by locals had grown to become a local annual fixture attracting families from all over the neighborhood.

In 2021, WWE world heavyweight wrestling Champion Big E started wearing custom-designed singlets on-air adorned with catch-phrases, and images of Seinfeld's version of Festivus.

O'Keefe family practices

The O'Keefe family holiday featured other practices, as detailed in The Real Festivus (2005), a book by Daniel O'Keefe's son, Dan O'Keefe. Besides providing a first-person account of the early version of the Festivus holiday as celebrated by the O'Keefe family, the book relates how Dan O'Keefe amended or replaced details of his father's invention to create the Seinfeld episode.

Festivus clock

In a 2013 CNN segment on the origins of Festivus, O'Keefe spoke about the real-life experiences related to the holiday. O'Keefe's father, who originated some of the now-recognized Festivus traditions, used a clock in a bag nailed to a wall, not an aluminum pole. It was never the same bag, rarely the same clock, but always the same wall. The nailing was most often done in secret and then revealed proudly to his family. The younger O'Keefe told CNN: "The real symbol of the holiday was a clock that my dad put in a bag and nailed to the wall every year...I don't know why I don't know what it means, he would never tell me. He would always say, 'That's not for you to know.'"

Archetype

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