Exodus as a Zionist Melodrama

“OperationExodus”: Israeli government involvement in the production of Otto Preminger's FilmExodus(1960)

“…90 In Israel it was very popular, though expectedly censured for its distortions and melodrama. 91 After the discussion between officials over ticket allocations to the ceremonial openings had ended, most attention turned to its international distribution in the Jewish and especially non-Jewish world. 92 Previews and official premieres abroad were allowed to serve too as fundraisers for the Weizmann Institute, though both Preminger and United Artists insisted that Zionist promotion must not be carried out conspicuously in any "regular advertising media."…”

The Tank Driver who Ran with Poodles: US Visions of Israeli Soldiers and the Cold War Liberal Consensus, 1958–79

“…17 Exodus exemplified the US embrace of Israel's independence struggle in both content and form, cemented as it was in contemporary popular genres of American literature, combining the war novel, the western and the romance. 18 Both Uris's novel and Otto Preminger's Exodus film that followed in 1960 portrayed the emergent Israeli society as one defined by armed struggle, but the protagonist Ari Ben Canaan was presented as far from a mere brute: the muscular Israeli fighter was reasonable, disciplined and stable. This depiction helped popularise Israel among a broad American readership as a reliable, trustworthy model for other nation states in the postcolonial world.…”

Exodus, Nakba Denialism, and the Mobilization of Anti-Arab Racism

“…The novel, first published in September 1958, purported to tell the story of Israel’s establishment from the earliest Zionist settlers who came to Palestine in late 19th century to the founding of the state in 1948. By combining the conventional plot twists of an epic work of fiction with glosses of historical events, the 600-page novel sought to present Israel’s founding as ‘a Zionist melodrama’ (Weissbrod, 1999).…”

“…In 1959 the official Israeli airlines El Al ‘sponsored a twelve-day “Exodus Tour of Israel,” which paired scenes from the novel with sites from antiquity or Israeli history’ (Kaplan, 2018: 90). In addition, news reports circulated that ‘copies of Exodus were given to members of the United Nations delegation stationed at Government House in Jerusalem’ with the intention of winning over diplomatic support for Israel (Weissbrod, 1999: 38).…”