MovieChat Forums > Shingeki no Kyojin (2013) Discussion > This is a Palestinian-Israel Analogy.

This is a Palestinian-Israel Analogy.

posted 11 years ago by voskyc
37 replies | jump to latest

English writing apologies in advance.

At fist glance you may think that this is Israel: a people surrounded with walls with feared persons inside, attacked constantly for stupid "Just want to kill you" "arabs".

Actually it is quite the opposite.

The cities represent the Palestinian territories.

The giants in facts represents the Zionist movement, let the military represent the stupid titans and the "smart" titans to be either the ideological branch of the Zionist movement or the infiltrated organization into the Palestinian groups.

The walls as you have seen in the anime, are considered "saints" for lot of people, they forbid titans to advance into the city.

Walls represents Allah, if you ask for a Palestinian, what have forbids their extermination, they will answer: Allah.

The state of their technology (rudimentary) will also support that it is not (at least) Israel.

Again, at first glance you may think they repressent the jewish people, the writer utilizes deliberately Jewish lastnames Yeager (not Jewish, but Ackerman is Ashkenazi jewish name). Take in mind however that "Yager" it is in fact a jewish last name.
They added several Jewish names over most characters (to much I said) just to "bind" the story.
You can not write a history with "Arabs" names all over and giants with curls ;-)

The general overview is a people that suddenly is attacked (his land) by giant (the military and political support analogy of Israel) enemy, that for no reason kill your people: "no -reason", for Muslims, the "holy land" as was "given by Allah to Jewish" it is not considered a correct interpretation and they consider not valid/no reason to take that land today (at least not in that way).

The story advance while the giants take over the lands and reduce the territory that can be habitable by the humans (analogy again to Israel increasing of the territories over the last century)

The "exploration" of the Survey Ops outside the walls, where they kill giants, represent in a popular (not Muslim correct etymology way) the Jihad.

An important linguistic analogy are dates:
They used 850, (you can now just write 1948 write ;-) or 950, is to obvious) 850 represents the "half of century", from wikipedia:

""The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is the ongoing struggle between Israelis and Palestinians that began in the mid 20th century.[1]"

"Eren" is a Turkish common name, that (a little debated, but accepted) to mean: "saint".

The Smart human-converted titans (Armored one, Collosal one and female one), represent strong army , political loby and infiltration respectively of the Zionist movement in this lands.
Take into account that it is not a giant that becomes a human, it is a human that becomes a giant: You can not blend a giant into humans, you can not blend a Jewish among Muslims ;-), however you can be an "arab" and become a Zionist ;-).

It is clear that the similarities are not so evident like in Matrix "0-1" nation that represent Israel, but it is clear the clear evidence of Palestinian-Isrel analogy.

However in the choose of Israel or Palestinian side of analogy it sustained much more on Palestinian case.

I know, you can interpreted the Giants as "the persecution over centuries of the Jewish People and finally they had to protect in the walls: Israel", where "stupid giant people "arabs" try to kill them and molest them in their "small holy land".

If this is the analogy, this only will sustained for the "creation of Israel" but nothing more, the rest of the attributes of the characters of situation do not represent current Israel situation at all. If that were the case, you should see:

1)Humans (Jewish people) all over the world, living in peace, blended with the titans (America and rest of the world where Jewish are not persecuted but the other way around they are respected and admired)
2)Amazing state of art technology
3)Supporting of other states or big support from another land (USA support)
4)The territory, should increase, not decrease
5)Most educated people (in series most people is stupid ;-P).
6)There will be no need to add so many Jewish names!!!, because the analogy would be clear ;-)
7)There are a lot of "muslimss" big economy countries around Israel that support Israel (there should be that analogy too).

Either way, good anime, waiting for season 2 :-).

[–] themissingpatient 10 years ago

I think it's open to interpretation. As a full-time screenwriter and someone who's been working in the film and television industries for 14 years, if we are writing an analogy, we make it a little more clear for people to figure it out. However, I do like the connections you've made and would be interested in looking into it further myself as I watch more of the series.

Have you ever read Haruki Murakami's 1985 novel, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and The End of the World? I think that's been an influence. In the novel the Wall around the Town is a metaphor for governments, religions and other such institutions that are set-up to guide and protect humanity but ultimately end up restricting and harming us in ways. I don't want to give too much away as the novel is nothing short of a masterpiece, but Murakami did give a speech when accepting a Jerusalem writing award saying that when it comes to a wall and an egg that breaks against it, he will always stand on the side of the egg. No matter how right or wrong the wall or egg might be, that is not his concern. He feels it's his duty, as a novelist, to not make judgements and to always stand on the side of the victim.

Another thing to note is that there are theories, outside of Greek mythology, that the titans are/were the offspring of the fallen angels. After leaving heaven to mate with the women of earth, the fallen angels were shunned by the Creator and were denied access back into heaven. So they made gods of themselves on earth and taught humans war and other such evils that would eventually lead to the destruction of humanity and the earth because the Creator favored humans over them. Their offspring, the titans, were giants who fed off human flesh. They were killed off in the flood and their spirits were bound to roam earth as "evil spirits" and still, to this day, do whatever they can to torture and harm humans.

Then there's the Great Wall of China, which could be another source of inspiration and a big part of Asian history and culture.

Again, these are just a few theories that are out there that one could look into to find deeper meaning in this series. I, personally, like things left open to interpretation and enjoy hearing on how other people read into it. To each their own. I do highly suggest reading Hard-Boiled Wonderland and The End of the World though.

[–] Hajikm_26 10 years ago

Anyone find this Thread totally ironic now? Yeh, I thought so LOL.

Who saw that coming right?

"Love breeds sacrifice, which breeds hatred. Then you can know pain." - Pain

[–] themissingpatient 10 years ago

lol - better to share a good laugh than spread any more hate towards Israel or Palestine. Irony is the best kind of comedy.

[–] strcelrau 10 years ago

You my friend have some problems, go see a doctor please

[–] cybopath 10 years ago

No its about the British siege of Londonderry. Wait its about Hadrians wall.

Actually its just anime about giants.

[–] skyscorpio 10 years ago

Yes it IS a Palestinian-Israel Analogy but you have got it BACKWARDS. Its the titans who are the dumb arabic terrorists who have nothing in their head but blood lust for jews living inside walls. Any person with slight common sense can see this. Maybe you are one of the titans themselves.

[–] ender27 10 years ago

Or maybe you are a racist dumbass.

[–] 10 years ago

[deleted]

[–] skyscorpio 10 years ago

OMG! A TITAN!

[–] nir_adler 10 years ago

[–] rinand_smart 10 years ago

nice observation bro

[–] michaelfreed924 10 years ago

Interesting how bigots like to de-humanize the people they hate. In this case, it's Jews as subhumans. Gee, what famous German political party did that once upon a time?

Go burn a cross or something...

[–] FairlyAnonymous 10 years ago

First of all: You are overthinking this.

Second: I think you are forgetting that Israel is surrounded by nations and people who want to destroy it on every border. People often forget that Israel was and IS attacked on its borders. People always jump and say "HA LOOK! Israel is evil because they attacked Palestinians!" But they forgetting that Israel has enemies on all sides and fought a war where more than one country tried to take it on at once. Also, (I had a friend who was in Israel for a couple of months) they said that Israel being attacked by random missiles was a common sight, yet the missiles were useless and never hit anything.

[–] Joyful51485 10 years ago

And I think you're forgetting that Israel used the world's guilt over the Holocaust to get the UN to force the Palestinians off of their own land and have since killed thousands of them, mostly civilians (including children). Sorry, not sorry.

Usagi-chan

[–] sarmen53 10 years ago

The problem with this analogy is that it completely ignores context and perspective, as in, why the hell would a Japanese anime contain social commentary on a conflict which they have never been involved in or cared about?

[–] travh99 10 years ago

really, context?? We are all involved. Are you kidding? Not only do you have this particulating attitude of imagining that anyone of a foreign culture cannot possibly be concerned, speculative, or sympathetic to the conflicts of another culture, but you display this total ignorance of the fact that the trouble with the world at war in modern times, the gordian knot of prevailing violence and conflict at the national level, is not some private backyard toussle, but an issue concerning everyone in the world. Do you think the worlds attentions are not on the centerpoints of political and ideological conflict in the world. Do you think the fact that the superpower america backing israel in all its doings is meaningless, does not suggest it a focal point of world concerns?