Gillo Pontecorvo's The Battle Of Algiers

This essay will discuss the past and present of Terrorism. From the Jewish Zealots of the 1st Century committing incidents of terrorism against the Romans to Hitler's Germany's committing atrocities against the people to the acts of terrorism that Ireland's IRA commit(ed) against the British Government to the ultimate act of Terrorism on the World Trade Centre, Terrorism has always existed. This essay will start with a brief summary of terrorism from the 1st century the early 20th century. Then it will conduct a brief case study on Nazi Germany. Furthermore it will conduct a case study on Ireland's IRA and the Arab-Israeli Conflict. Finally it will conclude on the ultimate terrorist act on the World

Majority of Muslim women became active participants on the side of the National Liberation Front (FLN) but there are some women, both Muslim and French, support the French colonization of Algeria. One thing for sure the war transforms the women’s lives and draw them from their bubble and into the world of revolution no matter what side they are fighting for. A prime example of this is Cherifa, a wife of a

Since its release in 1966, Gillo Pontecorvo's The Battle of Algiers has divided critical opinion. The film which depicts the Algerian struggle for independence, was awarded the Lion d'Or at the 1966 Venice Film Festival and nominated a year later for an Oscar as Best Foreign Film. Despite this acclaim, the inherently controversial film was banned in France until 1971 due to its graphic portrayal of torture and repression during the war. Heavily influenced by the distinctive film style Neorealism, the politically engaged director sought to make a film which was produced and shot within a 'dictatorship of truth.' These neorealist aesthetics (hand-held camera, non professional actors) rendered such an extraordinarily accurate reflection of

The number of woman suicide bombers has increased since the official first case of 2002, in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Whether the purpose of the fights is for independence, recognition, or religious ideology, woman are now being seen as having a critical part in the act of war and they are actively being recruited and trained. As shocking as it may seem, they are prepared to use the utmost violence to achieve their aims.

The idea that the young people of the world are the future is one that motivates many of our actions today. We look to preserve the economy and ecology in the hopes that it will sustain our children. We place a focus on education with the notion that we will be lead in the future by the children of today. This makes for an interesting dynamic, a social dynamic that is well-explored in Gillo Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers. The revolutionary setting allows Pontecorvo to play with the role of children as it relates to progress and the future. By analyzing stills from the film, we are able to see how children play both the role of the innocent and the militant, combining to show just how impactful the search for self-determination can be.

Throughout this paragraph I will be referring back to the video we were required to watch in class Beyond Borders: Arab Feminists Talk about Their Lives. This documentary in itself is the experiences of the people of that country, their lives, and feelings. In the documentary it is stated “For many Middle Eastern and North African Arab women in the nationalist movements, it was a time of optimism. Today, in Algeria in a brutal war between the government and Muslim fundamentalists, women are being killed for not wearing the veil and for taking part in public life. As well as basic fundamentalist rights were being taken away.” These women responded to the brutality they faced by contributing to make this documentary to share and spread awareness. To hopefully reach someone or anyone to make a difference where they are today, to avoid these kind of mistakes in the future. So there will not be fear of “history always repeating itself” and they will live in peace and

Supporters, planners and perpetrators of terrorist activities, women have been involved in terrorism since a long time. Even though, women have not been identify as key players until the late 1970s, they have a long history of involvement in terrorism. Important protagonists in the conflict across the world, women have carried suicide attacks and hold operational positions in some groups. The masculinity of armed conflicts and the gradual modernization of gender roles in societies conditioned women roles’ in terrorist

When he became President in April 1999, Bouteflika was in front of three enormous challenges. The first one was the result of a decade of domestic violence and insecurity. The second was the consequence of a catastrophic socio-economic situation attributed to the legacy of decades of statist economics (Bouandel 25-26). The third was the harmful product of the isolation of Algeria from the rest of the world, or what Hugh Roberts called “the virtual quarantine in which Algeria had been confined since 1994” (“Demilitarising ...” 1). In the course of his tenure, he brought about national reconciliation, recovered and reformed the stalled Algerian economy and restored what he described as “Algeria’s regional and international status”.1 Under his leadership, Algiers has become “a much sought after interlocutor in major world capitals” (Ghilès).

It is hard to outline what terrorism is because the definition of the phrase has been changing over the past two centuries and is still changing. It has been seen to change from a positive implication over the French Revolution which is closely associated with the ideals of virtue and democracy, through the revolution and lastly to a religiously inspired act as it is professed these days. We have to inquire if “old” and “new” terrorism actually exist or does the state we are facing remind us of an old wine in a new bottle? The paper is to discuss majorly what terrorism is today or currently and how it differs from terrorism that was. The significant and most crucial issues to be discussed in this paper will integrate how it should be outlined and understood as a

While these standards of comparison does not eliminate all the enigma, they enable us to answer some of the questions. Terrorism differs from ordinary crime in its political purpose and in its primary objective. The wide definition these philosophers adopt contain the word ‘violence’, which itself is a topic of endless debate. The crux of terrorism lies, however, in its motive and the modus operandi for their achievement.

On a crisp evening on November 13th 2015 a series of mass shootings, suicide bombings and hostage situations ensued. A Rattle of bullets, grenades and bombs were unleashed on innocent unarmed civilians. However the worse part was not how but where. Not in a war zone, not even in one notorious for violence, but in the biggest tourist destination in Europe; The City of light - Paris. The attacks were carried out in the places, out with our homes, that we feel safest: cafes, restaurants and even a music venue. These heartless, ruthless attacks deserve consequences, someone should pay.

In the beginning of Inside Terrorism, by Bruce Hoffman, he hopes to express how the term “terrorism” has evolved over the past two centuries and what it means today. He does not reveal a promised definitional certainty, but after a historical survey he conducted, he concludes that terrorism is “the deliberate creation and exploitation of fear through violence or the threat of violence in pursuit of political change” (43). Who gets to determine the definition of terrorism though? While this book gives us his definition, we can see a first-hand account of the clash of adversaries, much like the violent clash between the Israelis and the Palestinians, which Hoffman’s theories do little to clarify.

The course of this analysis has moved from an established definition of political violence and terrorism, to a normative framework primarily based off the work of Honderich, and into an analysis of four different cases of terrorism. Two cases were representative of justified terrorism and political violence, where I analyzed the Algerian War of Independence and the liberation struggle in South Africa during the apartheid. The two cases that followed were examples of unjustified terrorism, assessing the global terrorist group, al Qaeda, and anti-abortion militants. My investigation of these four cases yields that the justification of terrorism and political violence cannot be a universally assessed. The justification must be determined on a

and Inès M. representing the first female jihadist commando fully active in France are, among many other, reflective of the often unheard of, but not new, global phenomenon of female terrorism. These women, the minds behind the organization of the terrorist attempt that took place last September 2016, have been arrested after the discovery by French police forces of a car full with gas cylinders near Paris (France Info, 2016). Female political violence tends, in counterterrorism policies, to be vastly underestimated, and when acknowledged, to be presented as exceptional and abnormal (Laster and Erez, 2015). When looking back at history, one can notice that, from the “black widows” in Chechnya to Daesh’s ‘fan girls’ on twitter (Huey and Witmer, 2016) among many others, women have often played significant roles in supporting violent extremism, either in logistical support or active participation in violence. Robert Pape (2006:208) elaborated a database on all suicide attacks in the world between 1980 and 2003 and found out that fifteen percent of terrorists whose gender could be identified were women. Similarly, Christopher Harmon (cited in Nacos, 2005:436) argued in his research that more than thirty percent of international terrorists nowadays are women and that female members are essential and central to the development of extremist movements. These numbers from Pape and Nacos’ studies underline the actual relevance of women’s involvement in

Walter Laqueur’s book, “The New Terrorism: Fanaticism and the Arms of Mass Destruction”, is empowering readers with the entire spectrum of terrorism. The reasons behind terrorism are not easy to understand, but Laqueur goes into great detail to try and bring the reader to an understanding of what the terrorist is thinking in order to justify the means to the end.