On Israel-Palestine’s broken geography, Paul Klee’s angels (here below), and Walter Benjamin’s philosophy of history. Past catastrophe surgesinto the present.
Every image of the past that is not recognized by the present as one of its own concerns threatens to disappear irretrievably.
Fifth thesis on the Philosophy of History
I
A dark helicopter traverses a cloud-torn blue sky; another chopper comes into view, following the same flight path, propellers noisily threshing the air. The helicopters are military, carrying who knows what to who knows where, surveilling whatever they want to see. We pan down through gentle, gold-aqua light to a desolate coastline, low breakers spreading sine waves over a wide sweep of sand. In the background looms an unfinished skyscraper projecting floor-by-floor slats for future balconies. Then the picture jump-cuts to a metal fence blocking access to a jetty plastered with warning signs, followed by a shot of a fenced-off scrap of ocean. Two burly, bronzed men wearing wraparound black shades stumble over the sand, one talking on a cell-phone, the other sucking a smoke. The man on the phone, after a few seconds of banter, begins exclaiming in Hebrew: « What do you want from me? »
The two walk toward a half finished billboard advertising a « Mediterranean Building in the Marina », 4-5 bedroom apartments, along with penthouses. Whereupon the man with the cigarette turns away from the camera and brings his left hand to his trousers front — apparently preparing to urinate into the sand.
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