World War Z: From screen to reality

It is often said that cinematic reality is so close to the real world that it reflects it convincingly and sometimes prophetically. Watching the American film production “World War Z” (2013), the similarity of part of its scenario with the events of the Palestinian military operation “Flood of Al-Aqsa” or against the Israelis of the “Black Saturday” of October 7, 2024 does not go unnoticed.
When, a few years ago, the film was shown on Greek television, interest was aroused by the metaphysical element of the script that combines the outbreak of a global pandemic (see Corona virus) with the American-Israeli perspective on daily life in Jerusalem and the indirect demonization of the Palestinians. The script has a global dimension but the main part of it takes place in the Israeli-occupied Jerusalem by Demons (“genie” in Arabic, “golem” in Hebrew and “zombie” in English). The attack of the Demons is carried out by air and land by overcoming the “defensive” Wall that surrounds Jerusalem.
The cinematic wall surrounding Jerusalem refers to the 712 km long illegal Israeli Annexation Wall that separates Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank, namely Jerusalem, from 2002 until today. Along with the Green Line in Nicosia and the corresponding line on the Korean peninsula, the Annexation Wall are the latest examples of imperialist division of peoples. With gates and checkpoints the Wall separates people from the land, their family and friends, schools, hospitals, workplaces and places of worship, making their lives extremely difficult with endless adversity.
Although in the film the zombies are presented as supernatural beings of Evil and are not identified by name with the Palestinians, the association of identifying the zombies with the Palestinians in the mind of the viewer is almost automatic. As the Wall actually separates Israelis and Palestinians and in some places Palestinians from each other, it is not difficult for the viewer to assume that any “foreigner” coming from behind the wall is Palestinian. This association is reinforced and confirmed by the director showing many of the zombies wearing the Palestinian headdress of the keifiyya.
What associates the film with the developments of October 7 is precisely the concept of the demonization of the Other and the wall. The similarities are obvious: the wall in the film refers to the Israeli fence of the siege blockade of the Gaza Strip since 2007. The Israeli fence is an act of siege and a source of suffering for the Palestinians of Gaza. For the Israelis it is considered a defense wall. The crossing of the fence by Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters and their attack on Israelis is enough to make them “demons” in the Israeli public consciousness. The surprise of Israelis is common in film and reality, and the manifestation of the zombie attack in the film and Hamas-Islamic Jihad breaking through the fence disturbs the Israeli sense of insecurity more than ever.
Whether these similarities are merely coincidental or the screenwriter has a future intuition of developments or even if the Palestinian generals were inspired by the film, everything shows that cinema and political reality are not far apart.