No Other Land, streaming

“This film made by a Palestinian-Israeli collective shows the destruction of the occupied West Bank’s Masafer Yatta by Israeli soldiers and the alliance that develops between the Palestinian activist Basel and Israeli journalist Yuval”: No Other Land (dir. Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, and Rachel Szoris, 2024) is available to stream through May 8 ($13.99).

Elaine and I watched last night. It’s a document of unconscionable cruelty, face-to-face cruelty, that is sickening to behold, as Palestinian families with a long history in Masafer Yatta argue with Israeli soldiers before standing back to watch as the possibilities of life in this place are destroyed. Houses: bulldozed. A school: bulldozed. A generator: seized, and a man who struggles to keep it is shot (he later dies). A well: filled in with concrete. Water pipes: cut with a chainsaw. Again and again, trucks and tanks roll into a small settlement to destroy it. Again and again, those who have been forcibly evicted take refuge in caves and begin to rebuild.

[A school stood here.]