Old and busted: Seven Jewish Children
New hotness: Eighteen Cows.
Actually, it is not that new..and it is more ridiculous than you think.
The Wanted 18 is a 2014 Canadian-Palestinian animated documentary about the efforts of Palestinians in Beit Sahour to start a small local dairy industry during the First Intifada, hiding a herd of 18 dairy cows from Israeli security forces when the dairy collective was deemed a threat to Israel’s national security. The film combines documentary interviews with those involved in the events, archival footage, drawings, black-and-white stop-motion animation as well as re-enactments, and was co-directed by Canadian filmmaker Paul Cowan and Palestinian visual artist and director Amer Shomali. The film was the Palestinian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards but was not nominated.
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In the 1980s, as part of a Palestinian boycott of Israeli taxation and commodities, residents of Beit Sahour decided to form a collective and stop purchasing milk from Israeli companies, in a quest for greater self-sufficiency. They purchased cows from a sympathetic kibbutznik and set about teaching themselves how to care for the animals and milk them—even sending a member to the United States to learn dairy farming. The farm was a success, with strong local demand for “Intifada milk.” However, the herd was declared a “threat to the national security of the state of Israel” and Israel sought to impound the cows, forcing Palestinians to devise ways to keep them hidden.
So wait a minute. As part of BDS they stopped purchasing milk from Israeli companies, so they purchased cows from an Israeli man instead. Got it. That’s not BDS, that is cheating.
By the way, here’s the trailer:
https://youtu.be/hlKZ8daLtOo
This happened at the time of the First Intifada, whereby the palestinians launched a campaign of violence against innocent people. So while the animation and plot may give it a cutesy and off-beat vibe, remember this movie glosses over the increased terrorism and violence to which Israelis were subjected – and have been ever since.
