News travels very fast via chat: No Other Land is on the Oscar nomination list for best documentary for 2025.
No Other Land is a visual retelling of life in Masafer Yatta under a penetrating and extremely violent civilian and military occupation, through a difficult dialogue between the two filmmakers, Basel (Palestinian) and Yuval (Israeli), both of whom are in their first filmmaking experience.
They started working on it in 2019, vetting through the archives of Operazione Colomba, B’tselem and Youth of Sumud, to choose out of the many demolitions carried out by the Israeli authorities and the numerous attacks from the Israeli settlers which tapes represented the reality of occupation the most.
What emerged is a concentration of anger and frustration that perfectly communicates the reasoning behind the choice of a non-violent resistance, in which Palestinian activists record every violent act, the only viable option to keep on living on their own land, because otherwise these communities would be wiped out.
Yesterday I went in At Twani with two other volunteers to congratulate Basel, whom Operazione Colomba has known since he was a child
Along with the Oscar nomination, he reached another personal accomplishment: two months ago his first daughter was born, and, as it often happens, she keeps him awake at night, adding to his own worries the ones for the future of a little girl born under occupation.
We found him happy with all the notoriety, which also came after the previous Berlinale Prize, but simultaneously distressed: despite the general outrage and solidarity shown to him at every screening in Europe, nothing has changed in the reality of Masafer Yatta.
Every day settlers attack villages, every day homes are demolished, every day Palestinians are detained without a real reason.
A few days ago in Tuba six young settlers, two of them armed with machine guns, set fire to the car of a friend of Operazione Colomba, Radwan, a young man who is an activist and a journalist tirelessly denouncing the violence his community is suffering, squeezed between settlements and new outposts, and under final orders of evacuation and total demolition.
Radwan, who, powerless, saw his vehicle burn before his own eyes, and felt all of the humiliation of standing defenceless in front of the people who took away his freedom of movement, and the chance to give rides to international activists to protect his village.
He felt that his home was now at an even higher risk, even more vulnerable.
Then, surrounded by the love of the volunteers of Operation Dove, arrived on site shortly after, finding in his pockets the keys of his car now burnt to ashes, he couldn’t help but let out a bitter laugh.
Two settlers out of six have at least been retained, a meager consolation: they probably won’t be held in custody for long, and then they’ll be back to their daily abuse.
The point of the matter still stands: how is it possible that despite the reports, despite the grassroots mobilisation, despite the growing solidarity towards the Palestinian communities of Masafer Yatta, despite the live reports of Human Rights violations, no one can put an end to this endless injustice?
Not even the lights of the Oscars and all the visibility they offer actually succeed in affecting reality.
Masafer Yatta communities continue to suffer increasingly violent occupation.
S.
OPERAZIONE COLOMBA
