Jasper van Putten

‘Gideon’s Chariots’ Op. Map, May 17

English translation

Raffah Is Only the Beginning, May 20

Over time the flyers have become increasingly bold, advertising ethnic cleansing plans of the entire population, as in the flyer distributed around May 17th. This leaflet depicts the Gideon’s Chariots plan that was announced on the same day. The long straight arrow represents the IOF sweeping into Gaza while the shorter arrow that points out into Israel represents Gaza’s surviving population being expelled to Israel from which they are planned to be deported by air. Since the text is in Hebrew this leaflet, unlike all the others displayed here, wasn’t meant for distribution to the Gazan population. Still the flyer uses the same visual language.

The leaflets also became increasingly cynical and open about their genocidal purpose.The text on the second leaflet, distributed on May 20th says “Raffah is only the beginning,” threatening the all-out assault on cooped-up refugees as the IOF had done in Raffah. The image depicts the map of gaza as a chess board with a bloodied hand with a green wristband indicating Hamas reaches for its sole piece that is the green king. Although the chess game may be portrayed as about Hamas, the threat in the text is made directly to the civilian population among whom the flyer is distributed. This implies that for them the continuous movement of ethnic cleansing is a deadly game where people are moved, killed, and sacrificed as pawns. 

Moses Splitting the Red Sea, May 18

English translation

In this flyer, all pretense is gone and both text and image only constitute a threat of total destruction by superhuman power. The image shows the Red Sea as split in two by Moses in the Old Testament, with IOF insignia on each side. The text reads: “God Almighty said: Then We inspired Moses, “Strike the sea with your staff.” And it parted, and each portion was like a great mountain, O people of Gaza,The Israeli army is coming.”