Samson as suicide bomber

Apr 08 2007

Samson as suicide bomber

Published by jnarvey at 2:27 am under Israeli, Palestinian, Sampson, Suicide bomber, Terry Glavin, Vancouver, Victoria Philharmonic Choir, terror

In the old story of Samson and Delilah, the Hebrew version of the incredible Hulk quite literally brings down the house upon himself and his people’s oppressors, the Philistines.

In the Victoria Philharmonic Choir’s theatrical version of this story, Sampson is turned into a Zionist suicide bomber.

As Tyee columnist Terry Glavin rightly points out, until director Simon Capet came along, “nobody had figured out a way to use the Samson story to so completely turn things upside down as to reconstruct an important work of art to portray a Jew as a suicide bomber”.

Suicide bombings and terrorist attacks on civilians by Islamic extremists are a daily occurrence both in Muslim countries and and elsewhere, while Jewish suicide bombers are an as yet unprecedented phenomenon. This drama appears to be another well-meaning and catastrophically lunk-headed attempt to equate all terror with resistance and all terrorists with freedom fighters.

Judging by the letters defining Israeli efforts to combat terror as “state terror” that Glavin received in response to his column, it seems clear that a good number of people are taking exactly the wrong message out of this drama.

As the video above shows, there are certainly people out there who are deluded enough to claim that Samson and Osama bin Ladin are essentially flip sides of the same coin. The pillars of wisdom and logic come tumbling down…

One Response to “Samson as suicide bomber”

# on 08 Apr 2007 at 4:17 am

This makes one question the definition of “oppression”. Is it merely a subjective term–whoever says they’re oppressed is oppressed? Or is there more to it?

I suppose the Philharmonic would make a case that Germany was being oppressed by the Allies at the end of the war, just because they were getting their butts kicked. Or perhaps rapists are being oppressed by the state because they’re put in prison.

Of course, that kind of definition leaves out all context. Which is why it’s ludicrous. But that would be too nuanced for the people who always side against Israel.