This Land is Mine, Nina Paley’s Animated History of the Land Called Israel/Palestine/Canaan/The Levant

“This Land is Mine” is an animated musical short by artist Nina Paley that she describes as a “brief history of the land called Israel/Palestine/Canaan/The Levant.” A “who’s-killing-who viewer’s guide” is available on her website. You can make a donation to the Question Copyright project (which “assists artists in creating and releasing works under free licenses”) online. Paley is the project’s first artist-in-residence.

I envisioned This Land Is Mine as the last scene of my potential-possible-maybe-feature film, Seder-Masochism, but it’s the first (and so far only) scene I’ve animated. As the Bible says, ”So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”