“THIS IS OUR HOME”
PALESTINIAN FILMMAKING AS RESISTANCE The Boston Palestine Film Festival ran its 18th season from October 18-27. The festival highlights and centers Palestinian narratives as an affirmative expression of Palestinian existence and resistance to dehumanization. Showing at the Museum of Fine Arts, Coolidge Corner Theatre, and other venues, this year’s program contained a robust variety of narrative films, shorts, and documentaries that explore themes of displacement, family, memory, and survival. On October 23, the festival hosted a screening of No Other Land at the Regent Theatre in Arlington. This documentary is a collaboration between Palestinian filmmakers Basel Adra and Hamdan Ballal and Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor. The film is a brutal, moving documentation of the ethnic cleansing of Masafer Yatta, a collection of villages in the mountains of the West Bank near the Green Line. Masafer Yatta was declared a “firing zone” in 1980 by the Israeli military with the stated purpose of removing its Palestinian inhabitants to reserve the land for Israeli settlement. The people of Masafer Yatta are primarily farmers and shepherds, with connections to the land that trace back generations—their villages are visible on maps from the 19th century. Over the course of five years (2019-2023), the documentary follows the first-hand perspective of Adra as he records and resists the destruction of his home and expulsion of his people.
Though the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has a long, complex history, its root is simple and irreducible: settler colonialism destroys to replace. This ugly, central function of settler colonialism is on full display in No Other Land. The viewer witnesses how, through the continuous demolition of homes and vital infrastructure in Masafer Yatta, the Israeli military seeks to destroy Palestinian life in the region. Construction vehicles thunder into towns and bulldozers demolish Palestinian homes. They raze houses and schools, fill wells with cement and puncture water pipes. The people march and protest for their right to live on the land. They are assaulted with shock grenades and tear gas. An Israeli soldier shoots a man, paralyzing him from the neck down. When the lights came on in the Regent Theatre after the credits rolled, the packed room was profoundly silent. After a moment, someone in the audience spoke up, voice wavering with emotion but resolute: “This has to stop. It’s unacceptable that we can just go home at the end of the day while people are suffering like this.” They said, “I don’t know what to do, but we have to do something.” As I left, an older woman said to her friend, “It’s a little hard to stand up against that.”
NATIONAL DAY OF MOURNING Since 1970, Indigenous people and their allies have gathered at noon on Cole›s Hill in Plymouth to commemorate a National Day of Mourning on the US Thanksgiving holiday. Many Native people do not celebrate the arrival of the Pilgrims and other European settlers. Thanksgiving Day is a reminder of the genocide of millions of Native people, the theft of Native lands and the erasure of Native cultures. Hosted by the United American Indians of New England (UAINE), the National Day of Mourning is an opportunity for participants to honor Indigenous ancestors and Native resilience. It is a day of remembrance and spiritual connection, as well as a protest against the racism and oppression that Indigenous people continue to experience worldwide. Join us on Thursday, November 28, 2024 at 12 p.m. at Cole’s Hill in Plymouth, MA, as we continue to create a true awareness of Native peoples and history.
As I write this, a genocide is being carried out in northern Gaza. The occupation is enacting the so-called “General’s Plan,” published by the Israeli NGO Forum of Commanders and Soldiers in the Reserves in late September 2024, to expel the entire population of the region and declare it a “military zone.” Besieged and under media blackout, the What do you do in the face of overwhelming, stories that have emerged are horrific. intransigent power? This question is one In Masafer Yatta, the people repeatedly the filmmakers ask as they struggle against express a simple desire: “We want to live.” the ethnic cleansing of Masafer Yatta. After Amidst so much misery, they are fiercely witnessing more than a year of accelerated resilient and committed to life, land, and genocide in Gaza supported by our tax people. Under cover of darkness, people work dollars, many Americans confront the same challenge. Despite mass demonstrations and together to rebuild their homes. Even as the direct actions, the US government continues occupation wears on him, Basel remarks, to arm and empower a rogue genocidal state. “With all their strength, they will fail.”
CLAIRE HARRISON
Cole’s Hill is the hill above Plymouth Rock in the Plymouth historic waterfront area. The rallies and marches will last until approximately 3 p.m. While many supporters will attend in person, we will livestream the event from Plymouth at http:// bit.ly/3NIqUul. COVID-19 has hit Indigenous communities very hard, and we want to ensure that no one gets sick from attending the event. Please wear a mask! Help shatter the untrue image of the pilgrims, and the unjust system based on racism, settler colonialism, sexism, homophobia, and the profit-driven destruction of the Earth that they and other European settlers introduced to these shores. Solidarity with Indigenous struggles throughout the world. From Turtle Island to Palestine, colonialism is a crime! You can learn more about the event by visiting the UAINE Facebook event page at https://bit.ly/NDOM2024. You can learn more about the organization by visiting the website at www.uaine.org or following at @mahtowin1 on Instagram.
DESIGNERS:
Phoebe Delmonte: p.1,4,5 Hannah Blauner: p.2,3,7 Adrian Alvarez: p.6,8