‘I’m sorry my father is not here to greet you,’ said our seventeen year old guide. And then, after a pause: ‘He’s gone to Hollywood to the Oscars.’
By now we know that ‘No Other Land’ the documentary made jointly by an Israeli and a Palestinian film maker won best picture in the documentary category. Our guide’s father had been invited as a friend of the Palestinian filmmaker and activist Basel Adra.
Please watch the documentary either on Channel 4 https://www.channel4.com/programmes/no-other-land or online where it is available. And please also watch the acceptance speeches made by Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg1vdr4dzko Watch them to get a sense of the bleak but beautiful landscape of the South Hebron Hills, to see every inch of cultivatable land terraced and planted, to get a sense of the poverty of the subsistence living by the Bedouin people but most of all to get a glimpse of the dignity and courage of people who have been dispossessed several times over and whose community is threatened today.
Susiya has been a contested spot since the mid 1980s when the cave-dwelling community who grazed their flocks around the ancient site of Susiya were displaced from around the site of an ancient synagogue and an Israeli settlement also called Susya was founded on land which the Israeli Courts had accepted was in Palestinian ownership from the Ottoman period. The archeological site was appropriated by the Israeli Defense Force, and in 1986 the entire area was designated a closed military zone. Masaffer Yatta is in Area C, part of the Occupied Territories under Israeli military control.
Palestinian structures have demolition orders hanging over them and they are not allowed to extend or build in any way. Since October 7th aggressive behaviour by some settlers has increased and because some settlers are in uniform, and armed, the villagers don’t know who to turn to when they are attacked.
Our young guide described how at night settlers would come and lob stones at the tin roof of their home, and a couple of weeks ago a car was set on fire.
Our guide is in grade 12 at school and the local school doesn’t cater for that. He needs to go by bus to school in nearby Yatta. Following 7th October, however, school was cancelled for 2 months. Temporary ‘flying’ check points prevent the school bus from reaching Susiya regularly and online learning is difficult.
He has a plan though. When he finishes school he plans to go to the US to improve his English (which is already very good) and then apply to college there. Like so many Palestinians he is bright, humourous, hospitable and engaging.
But the future for his community and the other 19 communities that make up the area of Masafer Yatta is very bleak. As I visited 3 of these communities with an ecumenical group from the UK and the US the phrase we heard over and over was, ‘Since 7th October…’
Since 7th October, settlers have been armed and some are in uniform. Since 7th October attacks on livestock, cars and demolitions of structures has increased. Since 7th October several people have been killed and the Police and the army do nothing. A Palestinian lifting a stick in self defence will likely be arrested immediately, but extreme settlers, caught on camera in the act of killing and destroying act with impunity.
OCHA reports for Susiya say,
Susiya, in Masafer Yatta area of southern Hebron, has seen a steady rise in documented settler incidents from five incidents in 2021 to 33 in 2024, with the most significant increase being in incidents that resulted in property damage, particularly affecting agricultural and animal-related structures as well as olive groves. Both communities have witnessed a sharp rise in settler incidents over the past two years, resulting in near-daily intimidation, night raids, threats, and destruction of property—generating a coercive environment that push Palestinians out of their current locations. Between 7 October 2023 and 31 December 2024, OCHA documented the displacement of 1,762 Palestinians, including 856 children, mainly in Bedouin and herding communities across the West Bank, citing heightened attacks by Israeli settlers and access restrictions.[1]
Reaction to the Oscar success of No Other Land is instructive. As well as those who applaud and hope that many more people will see and understand the suffering of the Palestinians in the West Bank, and those who denounce Yuval Abraham as a self-hating Jew and conflate West Bank Palestinians with Hamas, and reshow video footage of atrocities committed on October 7th, there are Palestinians who argue that Basel Adra could have made the film on his own. Their argument is that Yuval’s involvement is just another example of settler colonialism, occupying a project for his own ends.
My sense is that to have people in Israel watch the movie, Yuval’s involvement was essential.
The phrase ‘no other land’ is used by a woman in the film displaced from the traditional cave dwelling she and her family had moved to when her house was destroyed. She meant there is nowhere else her family can go, but the phrase picks up the core dilemma for both Israelis and Palestinians. There are approximately 7.5 m Israelis and 7.5m Palestinians, including Arab Israelis and residents of Gaza. Neither will be able to successfully remove the other, but how can trust be built and land shared?
In his Oscar acceptance speech Yuval said, ‘When I look at Basel I see my brother but we are unequal. We live in a regime where I am free under civilian law but Basel has to live under military laws that destroy his life and he cannot control.
He continued: “There is a different path. A political solution. Without ethnic supremacy, with national rights for both of our people. And I have to say, as I am here, the foreign policy in this country is helping to block this path.
“Why? Can’t you see that we are intertwined? That my people can be truly safe if Basel’s people are truly free and safe. There is another way. It’s not too late for life, for the living. There is no other way.”[2]