No Other Land

CinemaSerf

@Geronimo1967

Regardless of your position on the rights and wrongs of this Israeli/Palestinian conflict, there is no other conclusion to draw here but that the ordinary families living on the West Bank are being treated appallingly by the Israeli state. To see little more than adobe one-room houses bulldozed and domestic water pipes sabotaged is little short of outrageous and no wonder the troops were doing their best to stop filming. This documentary focuses on the struggles of Yuval and Basel as they try to prevent the destruction of their community as best they can. Their's is a peaceable fight - they have no guns or rockets, nor do they advocate their use. They just want to get on with their subsistence lives in peace. People can always argue about the legalities of who got there first; who is supposed to have a claim on the land - and whose claim could/should or will take precedent, but for images like this to be seen around the globe is the equivalent of a PR disaster for the Netanyahu government and for it's credentials. Now, of course, this film makes no attempt at balance so what we are shown is very much as intended by the filmmakers, and that's designed to exemplify the attitudes of the settlers - and violent people at times these are too, so yes it can appear a bit one-sided, but when you send a squad of heavily armed troops, tanks and demolition personnel to a village for the sole purpose of destruction - not even of repurposing the buildings - then the moral argument is lost before it's even began. These young guys are sleeping under the stars staring an uncertain future in the face and those who wish to dispossess them clearly couldn't care less about what happens to them, their elderly parents, their young children - even their herds. If you take such an obnoxiously hostile attitude to people, then you cannot be surprised when that transposes itself into sentiment of hatred, rancour and resentment. People have been fighting over this land for millennia, surely it's time for the international community to impose a settlement that respects both communities? Naive? Pipe dream? Well maybe, but so long as the West continues to arm and re-arm the IDF and it's own legal system arbitrarily decides what to do with those of different faiths and heritages, then it isn't hard to wonder just how long these two young men will remain content to try to use social media and public opinion to alter events, and end up taking more direct means themselves. It's simply put together and all the more potent for that.