However, as Rogers notes, complete rejection of the Holy Land would have meant casting aside Christianity and the values therefrom. Palestinians and Palestine are severed from the image of the Holy Land in the West. In fact 135 years after Twain's visit, his condemnation of Muslim rule in Jerusalem would be used by Zionists as justification for Israeli sole control over the city. They are implored to destroy the carved images and idols of the inhabitants, and to possess and settle the land given to the Jews by God. Rejection of any treaty with an idolater is central to Jewish biblical thought.
Idolatry is thought to defile the one true god.
This defilement is most concretely and literally realized when the idolatrous agreement concerns land, the sacred, inalienable territory that God has given to Israel. This worship of the land as idol constitutes a violation of the second commandment, i.e., the prohibition of idolatry, and is considered the worst sin a believer in the bible can commit. But Mitchell concludes that making Israeli settlers aware that their obsession with the land violates not only international law but also their most treasured commandment falls far short of persuading them to abandon their errant course. The latter, combined with selective direction, filming techniques, and conceptualization of a film, reaffirm the disfigurement of Palestine and Palestinians. There are also essays that address the physical environment and art of Palestine and Palestinian cultural signification, whether prehistorically or in more recent history.