33/34
I saw it at the Movies That Matter 2024 film festival in The Hague
Line of Events
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 Palestinian activist Basel and Israeli journalist Yuval. Stunning and unique footage of what is happening in the West Bank, especially urgent today when our newspapers and talk shows focus on Gaza. As a logical consequence, the West Bank does not really exist for us, despite many similarities. In both areas, Israeli policy is constantly turning the law against the people who live there. And we, at a safe distance, leave it like that and easily ignore the suffering and constant humiliation of the Palestinians.
The soldiers accompanying the bulldozers are informed that people there live in illegally built houses
What is happening in the West Bank is rarely shown on television or written about in newspapers. The footage in the film in question is unique and exposes how Israel changes the law. The villagers have absolutely no respect for their rightful owners, and force entire families to move into caves for lack of better options, while their houses are demolished one by one by bulldozers. Every time the army and bulldozers arrive, it is not known until the last moment which houses are going to be destroyed. It is therefore useless to shout at the soldiers and appeal to their conscience, as they are spineless tools.
The politics behind the forced evacuation are appalling
The soldiers repeatedly tell the people who resist that they only have to ask for a permit from the army and everything will be sorted out (but the villagers know, and we know, that such a permit will never be granted). We know from secret documents that the annexation of that piece of land was not really intended to create a training area for the army, as the invaders repeatedly claim. Instead, its sole purpose was to prevent the village from expanding. One question that came up in the Q&A session was whether this material can serve in a judicial investigation to establish war crimes against Palestinians. It was new to me that a considerable part of the soldiers involved are internationals and not native Israelis.
Based on this material, they can be identified
Their acts can be prosecuted, as the way Israel arrives at these eviction orders is generally considered illegal. During the Q&A session a very important question was asked: how do you explain all this to children? Denial is impossible, as they see it happening before their eyes. Anyway, it all leaves us speechless when we leave the venue after the screening. It happened for many years now, and it continues to happen as shown here.
See the full program of the 62nd New York Film Festival this fall
It is even reinforced since the Gaza war, when settlers living nearby are more than happy to help with the evictions, feeling entitled to revenge after October 7.