No Other Land (2024) Movie Script
1
Guys, the army
is surrounding the village.
Basel where are you?
Basel, come home quickly.
Slowly.
Something is about to happen.
Come here!
Come fast!
What is happening people?
The soldiers are pointing at a map.
I'm five years old.
My first memory.
A light woke me up.
This was my father's first arrest.
I'm seven years old.
The first protest I remember.
This is my land.
I sat in the field with my mother.
This is my grandfather.
And this is my father.
Daddy!
That time, I began to realize
my parents were activists.
You're under arrest, don't move.
I would think:
My father is invincible.
Today, his gas station is
the center of his life.
He built it under our house.
To the sheep? Let's go.
- Daa!
- Daa!
- Daa!
- Daa!
Little Elias. My brother's son.
- What?
- Daa.
He says a lot with just one sound.
- Elias.
- Daa!
When I was a boy like him,
People around me started to film.
My name is Basel. I herd sheep.
Every day at 2 PM in my village.
Masafer Yatta
is the community I grew up in.
We're a community of 20 small villages
on the West Bank mountains.
I started filming,
when we started to end.
1,000 Palestinians from 8 villages
in the Occupied Southern West Bank
could be facing eviction
thanks to a ruling
by Israel's supreme court.
More than 1,000 Palestinians could soon
be evicted from their homes.
Masafer Yatta in the Southern West Bank.
They face one of the single
biggest expulsion decisions.
Since the Israeli occupation
of the Palestinian territories
began in 1967.
Yes.
Hurry up, get the car,
they might destroy my village.
- Basel?
- Where are the cameras?
Maybe under the mirror.
Where are you going?
There it is.
- Eat something before you go.
- No. I have to run.
Come quick.
You come to destroy our homes?
Don't fear my dear,
they will leave soon.
They won't stay with us for long.
Curse them.
- The girls are still in the bedroom.
- Stay back.
- My daughters are there.
- Doesn't matter, move back.
Why treat us like this?
Move! Go there!
Soldiers, stand in formation!
I need air, oh my god.
Don't worry my love.
I don't want them to...
They're taking our home.
What will we do?
Put that in the corner.
Organize our things.
Put your clothes in the cave.
Do you have a place for this?
Put our beds deep inside the cave.
Kids don't go far, help us!
Bring the laundry machine inside.
Are we going to live in a cave now?
Oh my, nothing is left.
They destroyed even the sheep pen.
- You're Basel?
- Yes.
I'm Yuval, how are you?
Yuval, please be sensitive
with the people.
They asked if I'm an Israeli journalist?
I don't know.
How many homes remain in this village?
Few remain.
People go to live in caves, under us.
One family lives there.
- Hello.
- How are you?
I speak Arabic.
I speak English,
don't talk to me in Arabic.
He's a journalist.
- Where are you from?
- I'm from Be'er Sheva.
Nice. So you're Arabian?
No, I'm Israeli.
You're Israeli? Seriously?
You're a "human rights" Israeli?
Something like that.
What do you think about what
your country is doing to us?
I think it's a crime.
How could your court of "justice" decide,
That our land
will become the army's land?
When did your family start living here?
- 1900.
- 1900?
Our ancestors settled here in the 1830s.
They made us strangers in our own land.
What will you do now?
The army wants to take all our land.
Yes.
You talked to the soldiers today?
I asked a soldier if he's ashamed
to demolish my home.
He said, that's the law,
why should I be ashamed?
We won't leave.
- Who is your dad?
- Nasser.
Oh, your dad has a gas station.
Your dad is the fuel guy.
Basel, thanks for the help today.
Welcome to our home.
Come inside.
Sit down, relax.
How are you?
I'm great.
Nice home.
Meet my mother, my sister, and Basel.
We're all one big family,
everyone is welcome here.
We'll drink coffee with ginger?
Do you like ginger coffee?
What's that?
- Ginger coffee.
- Sure.
When I see what's happening Yuval,
I get so angry I want to throw rocks.
But I hold myself back.
Of course you're angry.
It's as if I turn into someone else.
I can't control this feeling.
Total destruction.
It's your relatives who
are doing this to us.
- Where were you born?
- In Be'er Sheva.
The place you were born in,
you can never forget it.
Am I right or wrong?
- Right, it's impossible to forget.
- It's impossible to forget.
So how do they expect us
to forget our place?
I believe we can stop the expulsion.
If we are active
and we document on the ground.
It will force the United States
to pressure Israel.
This might stop our expulsion.
I'll send you a link to my article.
I hope you'll be in touch.
Bye Basel, thanks again.
SHARE NOW
Finish the game and go to sleep.
- I didn't have time to play mom.
- You played too much!
Continue tomorrow.
Israeli courts decided
to ruin the villages,
And evict the
people, so the army
can train on their lands.
Daddy, let's go to school.
Not many kids will go to school today.
The teacher said:
ask your father to take you.
Really?
Even with what the army is doing?
Come on dad,
all the kids are going to school!
Okay, let's go.
We have grass - it exists!
We have a mountain - it exists!
We have a chicken house - it exists!
We have a house - it exists!
We have... a rock - it exists!
In Masafer Yatta,
we decided 20 years ago,
to welcome anyone who stands with us.
Soldiers broke into our home at night.
They said that if we invite Israeli
or international activists again,
they will do something even worse to us.
Can you translate?
I grew up in a home full of activists.
Glimpses into other lives.
My village when I was a boy.
Masafer Yatta is known for its
ancient cave homes.
When I was born,
the army ordered our removal.
Our electricity is a security threat?
You're coming here to ruin our lives.
They said they need our land
for tank training.
CLOSED ARMY TRAINING ZONE!
Our villages appear on maps
from the 19th century.
But the army doesn't
recognize that the villages exist.
On our land they built
Israeli settlements.
To fight the expulsion,
our villages went to court.
A court that isn't ours.
It took 22 years,
for the Israeli court to decide:
Masafer Yatta will be destroyed
to become a military training ground.
You stay here.
We will go down to them.
Do you have a camera?
Why?
The army appointed this man,
to execute the court's expulsion orders.
Ilan, listen to me.
We've lived here for ages,
you're wasting time, we won't leave.
I was born here 70 years ago.
We're done here, soldiers come with me.
Ilan! Ilan!
DEMOLITION ORDER 1455
He signs each demolition order
with the name 'Ilan'.
He gave them to all the families.
Read it.
You're thieves.
If you had children,
could I do this to them?
Could I?
I'll arrest you if you don't leave.
(Basel) Dad, leave it!
You bring all these forces
for a playground!
We won't have a playground now?
They put it on the playground.
Leave!
What don't you get?
Use your legs, and go there.
What about you?
Do you live here?
Do you live here?
Do you realize you're in
our training zone?
This is a military
training zone,
you're not allowed to live here.
Ilan, please listen!
Either we kick you out,
or you leave on your own.
Everyone get the hell out of here.
Ilan, you're taking everything from us.
A lot of army is here.
They plan a big demolition?
We don't know.
They're driving towards
one of my neighbors.
(Basel) Now the soldiers arrived here.
Aren't you ashamed to do this?
Aren't you afraid of god?
Go back!
Move back now!
Get back!
I'll push you all the way back!
I speak Hebrew, don't shout.
I hope that bulldozer
falls on your head.
Why are you taking our homes?
Why destroy the bathroom?
Stop it, that's enough.
Why are you still here?
Stay back, stay back.
You ruined my home, leave happy.
Ilan, let me handle her.
Please move back.
Enough! Make him leave.
What's left?
Move back.
They didn't let me take our things
before they ruined my home.
Our kitchen is buried
under the house debris.
Do you have any other place to go?
We have no other land.
It's our land,
that's why we suffer for it.
Doha, come here.
We'll eat a bag of bread for dinner?
Kids, come and eat.
How can we live in a cave?
Our family is too big.
We'll rebuild secretly at night.
What are you doing?
What are you doing?
- I'm spinning.
- Really?
So nobody catches me.
You're my love, right?
Tomorrow will be a new day.
Hey Basel! What's up?
- Hello.
- Hi.
- My name is Yuval.
- I'm Hamdan.
He's a journalist that wants to write
about the demolitions.
Only if you agree.
But does anyone actually
care to read about it?
Honestly, not many.
I hope that will change.
Oh, my heart.
My god!
My god...
Pour the cement.
Basel is better at this.
I hate working.
I'm like the son of Benjamin Netanyahu.
Wait, not like that Yuval, damn you.
At the speed Yuval works,
we'll never finish.
Stop, stop.
You told me you're bad at this work,
but you're good.
I worked in Be'er Sheva,
to fund my university studies.
- Doing what?
- Construction, like this.
- Really?
- Yes.
I'm always the cheap labor guy.
Let's hide it?
We hid it.
We hid it from them,
but they're always watching.
This guy is a spy, I'm telling you.
Do you smoke?
You're Israeli.
What do you mean?
Arabs build for you
and you destroy for them.
You destroy Palestinian homes.
Why, Yuval?
But how is it to build?
It's fine, look at my hands.
- You'll go home today?
- Maybe.
I'll go home to take a shower.
Of course you'll go back.
Did you go to the army?
I left it,
I was meant to be in intelligence.
- Because you speak Arabic?
- Yeah.
How are you so fluent in Arabic?
I did a course with my friend
after high school.
Learning Arabic really changed
my political views.
So when the army wanted
me to serve in intelligence,
I refused, I didn't serve.
It's a long story.
Basel, send me the pictures
of the demolition.
I know I haven't been
writing enough lately.
I'm in Masafer Yatta all the time.
I'll send more articles about it soon.
I need fuel.
Take money.
Which village in Masafer
Yatta are you from? Jinba.
They're taking everything.
They don't want us to rebuild.
Soldiers, after me.
Confiscate the building tools,
grab that shovel.
You're here to search for a saw?
For a drill? This equipment is ours!
You enter their village
to take building tools?
Look, families live here.
(Basel) Yuval, leave him.
It's their building equipment!
Why do you care?
I care because it's all done in my name.
Get the fuck back, hey!
Stay back.
Don't get close.
My camera stopped working.
Leave our generator! Give it back!
(Basel) I'm filming you!
Don't take our generator!
Why do you want it?
Stop it.
Fuck you! You son of a bitch!
Stay back!
Pull the generator from them.
He killed him!
He killed him!
Harun!
Harun!
(Basel) They're shooting people.
Ambulance! Ambulance!
Harun!
Ambulance!
Harun!
Don't shoot!
He killed him.
Bring the car.
God, please make him recover.
It's all I want in the world.
- It happened in front of you?
- Yes, in front of me.
They shot my son in front of me.
I lifted his head and his
blood poured on me.
In front of my eyes.
In front of me.
Harun, can you hear me?
If you can hear me, blink.
Blink again.
Harun Abu Aram is paralyzed
from the shoulders down.
After soldiers shot him
as they took his building tools.
While he tried to hold on to them.
JUSTICE FOR HARUN
- Basel?
- Yeah?
Mom said I can join you.
Give me balloons.
From both sides of the wall!
From both sides of the wall!
We will stop home demolitions!
We will stop home demolitions!
We weren't born to live oppressed!
We weren't born to live oppressed!
From both sides of the wall.
From both sides of the wall.
We will stop home demolitions...
he has grenades.
Stay together everyone.
They're going to throw stun grenades.
Raise your voice! Raise your voice!
Raise your voice! Raise your voice!
If you shout, you won't die!
If you shout, you won't die!
Raise your voice! Raise your voice!
Please, everybody go back carefully.
Children follow the adults.
Shit.
In the protest a soldier
told me to watch out.
He said they will come to arrest me later.
You have to be prepared.
You look so tired.
Look at him run!
Hey Elias, how are you?
Say hello.
Say hello to Yuval.
Give a high five.
You're afraid?
Why do you come to me?
Me and you, we're fighting.
What do you want?
This is all food, what should I get you?
- Daa.
- Okay Basel, go home!
- Daa!
- Okay Salem, go home!
Give this date to Yuval.
Tell him to eat it.
Tell him to eat and enjoy.
Daa!
No, no! Give it to him. Hand it like this.
I need to write something
about the protest today.
I have to write more.
The article I wrote
on Harun's mom,
didn't get many views.
Okay, it's always like that, you are...
What?
- I feel you're a little enthusiastic.
- What?
I feel you're enthusiastic.
What do you mean?
You want everything to happen quickly.
As if you came to solve everything...
In 10 days, and then go back home.
This has been going on for decades.
We have to stop.
You really feel I want
to go home in 10 days?
- What?
- You feel I want to go in 10 days?
Go where?
No, you are...
Enthusiastic like you want to
end the occupation in 10 days.
The article didn't get enough views...
You want it all fast.
Okay, so how should it be?
I don't know, but surely not like you think.
I don't think it will end in 10 days,
what am I, stupid?
You're enthusiastic.
So? What's the problem?
No problem, but you won't succeed.
It requires patience.
Get used to failing, you're a loser.
Let's check the fuel.
- I won't be able to sleep tonight.
- Why?
Because of that soldier,
from army intelligence.
He told me at the protest:
Basel, we will arrest you tonight.
What happened?
The army is here?
- They're at the entrance?
- Yes.
Wow.
Where are the cameras?
They're waiting near those trees there.
And two army jeeps entered from there.
- Two jeeps?
- In the woods, yes.
There's also a strange light there.
You think they'll come to our home?
- It's them down there?
- Yes it is.
They will enter with many soldiers.
- Go wear a warmer coat.
- I'm okay mom.
It's cold.
We don't know what will happen.
Don't be afraid.
How can I not be afraid?
Where did they go?
They're coming?
Basel, don't go there.
(Basel) This is what's happening
in my village now.
Soldiers are everywhere.
Back off.
Who do you think you're filming,
you son of a bitch?
Open the door.
Enter the home.
What are you doing here?
Please take your stuff out of this house.
2, 7, 6, 8, 7
- This is revenge for the protest?
- None of your business.
- I'm just asking.
- Okay, we replied.
You searched, nobody is in the house?
They entered all the rooms,
and asked where's Basel?
I said: I don't know him.
I stayed hidden.
But why arrest you?
Maybe for filming them yesterday.
Yuval, you talked to them?
I tried, they didn't answer much.
They wanted 'Basel, or his father'.
They wanted one of us.
You have school now.
When I try to wake you,
I hear Mommy I can't, I'm too tired.
But for the army? You wake up fast!
They came to check if you're
sleeping well at night?
It's two in the morning, and you're
doing operations in our houses?
They're doing stun grenades.
Wait a minute. My wife isn't feeling well.
Get in the car.
It's eight in the morning,
they're starting a new policy.
This is a training zone,
you can't drive here.
Who decided?
- I want to return to my home.
- It's illegal to drive here.
But I need a car to visit
my son in the hospital!
Palestinians can't drive here!
Understand? Explain it to her.
Masafer Yatta will not give up!
It'll take time, but at the end
we believe that we will win.
Hello everyone,
since the morning until now.
Demolitions of homes happening
in Masafer Yatta.
- What are you doing?
- Destroying.
That's the law. It's all legal.
But it's a law made by settlers!
If you have a problem,
take it up with the law.
We want an ID card! We want a state!
To resist, it takes time.
One water drop doesn't make change.
But keep dropping the water,
and it will make change.
It's happening also this morning.
That this convey is coming
to Masafer Yatta.
A bulldozer is coming.
Two bulldozers.
There are hundreds of demolition orders.
People don't know
which house and village,
they're going to choose today.
Destroy everything here,
there, and there.
And there.
One, two, three, four!
Occupation no more!
One, two, three, four!
Occupation no more!
Occupation no more!
Why are you choking him?
(Basel) I'm filming you!
They're refusing to give us permits.
Or master plans for our villages.
They come and demolish our homes.
And keep saying in the media
that we're building illegally.
Basel I'll wash your clothes,
so if you go to jail
you'll have a bag ready.
Nothing on mainstream news
about the demolitions.
As if it happened, but also,
it never happened.
We'll keep filming everything.
And we have to think
How to reach more people
in different ways.
That would be excellent I think.
- Why are you on your phone all day?
- It's from stress.
Stress, stress, stress.
You're afraid something will happen?
Yes, but also I'm stressed
because I have nothing to do.
What do you mean?
I don't know.
What?
What can I do besides
being on my phone?
Huh?
I have nothing else, only my phone.
What would you like to do?
Anything else.
But you studied law, can't you practice it?
That's
Something I lost hope in.
Students like me studied so hard
for a law degree but
But our economy is ruined,
you can find work only in Israel.
- What work?
- Construction. No other option.
Like you never went to university.
What do you think?
If you were in my place,
what would you think?
You come here from outside,
you can move freely, you have a job.
I would be frustrated.
Basel honestly, I don't know how
I would be if I were you.
How I would have so much
Hope and power like you.
Right?
Yes, but sometimes I think
too hard about it all
And I feel this huge depression in me.
What's wrong?
Nothing, go bring wood,
for your brother Harun.
I want to make a fire.
Bring it to me.
They're broken?
Excellent.
Is somebody coming?
Nobody is coming.
Watch it kids.
That way, that way.
Move from the way.
Harun, we won't forget you!
We're all your sisters!
We're all your sisters!
No to the occupation!
You destroyed my family.
Even our car you took.
Nobody covers treatment
for my paralyzed son.
My son lives in a cave,
because the army doesn't allow us
to build a home for him.
It's a dirty cave,
and I take him to a doctor
since his chest gets infected.
Come visit me my dear,
come see my son.
Get off the road.
Slowly.
Slowly, slowly.
This is a story of Basel Adra.
A post from Basel Adra.
Basel thank you so much
for being with us today.
I follow you closely on Instagram.
He spent years documenting
Israeli efforts,
To evict Palestinians
living in Masafer Yatta.
There's a hate from them towards me.
Just because I take my phone or camera,
And I go film them when they're doing,
like, these crimes.
I want to talk to you for a second
about Masafer Yatta.
Forced evictions and demolitions
in Masafer Yatta.
- Masafer Yatta.
- Masafer Yatta.
Over 2,500 Palestinians are facing
forced expulsion.
As an Israeli, it's very
important for me to stress
that I don't think we can have security
if Palestinians don't have freedom.
They live with no voting rights
under military occupation.
Basel, a guy my age who lives there,
can't even leave the West Bank.
And we destroy their homes every week.
You're against Jewish people,
in everything you do.
You don't even know me,
why do you say I'm against Jews?
They're families of farmers,
on their private land.
What you're saying is a lie.
They're invaders in a
military training ground.
Why are you doing this?
They build illegal homes,
inside a military training zone.
And people call the expulsion
a war crime?
I think they don't know
what a war crime is.
He documents the eviction
of his community in Masafer Yatta.
- Level ten, really?
- Ten! Ten!
Get ready!
Our protests are effecting the army.
We do 3 protests a week,
it has an impact.
They didn't invade our villages
for a long time.
They didn't give new demolition orders.
That's why we can't stop,
even if they arrest people.
The army would be pleased if we stop.
But you should be more careful Basel.
Me and you should leave
this place together.
- Really?
- Yes.
Where will we go?
To the Maldives.
A donkey.
- He's laughing at your idea.
- Why?
The idea of leaving.
That's it, you'll go to sleep?
You want to go home, what can I do?
I have to go.
- You're running away?
- I'm going home.
- Why?
- Because.
I'm going to visit my mom.
Well, I have no way to leave this place.
PASSAGE FOR ISRAELI CARS ONLY
Give mom some food.
- Maa!
- Maa!
He loves to say maa.
Play Elias his song, so he dances.
Basel, there will be
a demolition tomorrow,
I can feel it.
It's a feeling.
I heard army helicopters all day.
Doha, those are pants, not a shirt.
Do you want to flip over?
Lift your hand, let's move it a bit.
Come on, hurry up!
Today we will learn the alphabet.
Let's all look at the first letter.
- What is it?
- Alef!
Who knows the next one?
Who knows the answer?
Me!
When I was a boy,
My village wanted to
build the first school.
The plan was to work together
all summer.
It's illegal to build here,
you don't have a permit!
It's a school!
It's not just a building,
it's for our children! This is a school.
We want to live!
Like you're living, we want to live!
The army threatened
to arrest the workers.
My mom loves to tell us,
how she had an idea:
Women and children will
work during the day.
Don't get close to the girls!
I'll hit you with the stick.
Men will work at night, in secret.
Forward!
Sides!
Up! Down!
That's how the school
I attended, was built.
The nonviolent struggle for a school,
Led Tony Blair to visit us.
He walked around our village
for 7 minutes.
Here he is next to our home.
Next to my father.
Who speaks no English,
and never went to school.
After he returned to the UK,
Israel cancelled
the demolition orders for
the school and homes
in the street he walked in.
This is a story about power.
I grew up hearing it.
They're entering.
They're entering the village.
It could be our chicken house.
It could be the neighbor's chicken house.
It could be their home.
- Nasser, stay calm.
- Yes, of course.
They might arrest you.
You heat up quickly, be careful.
Who owns these chickens?
I'll kick them out.
Ilan you shit!
Nobody is allowed to move.
Why are you here?
Why invade our village?
It's our village.
We can build in our village.
Why are you here? Why are you here?
Go home.
Our pigeons were there.
Where are they?
- They destroyed your chicken house?
- Yes.
The little pigeon is alive.
No, it died.
It's alive, a little one.
Inside the barrel?
Film son, why are you leaving me alone?
Film Basel, they're still here.
Forward! Move!
(Basel) I'm filming you.
I'm filming you!
You're just like criminals.
- You're expelling us.
- If he gets closer, arrest him.
Arrest me! On what grounds?
Grab him.
On what grounds?
I have a journalist card.
I have a journalist card!
Shut up!
Don't hit my son!
Leave our village! Go away!
Leave you shit!
- Shoot. Shoot me.
- Move back.
- Shoot me.
- Move back.
Get an ambulance.
Leave him.
Run Basel, run!
Get up son, run!
Run Basel!
I hope, I hope, I hope.
What are they pointing at?
Enter your home!
Enter your home!
- I'm a journalist.
- It doesn't matter, enter your home.
Do you understand?
Hide yourself Basel.
And don't let them see your face!
Move or I'll use force.
Film from there.
Arrest him.
Take him to the jeep.
I'm a threat? I am a danger?
Let him go!
You animal, let him go!
Let him go!
- Where did they take your father?
- We're not sure.
Wow, Basel.
He's with the army now,
and they're vengeful.
They take you
and it's a form of emotional torture.
My father was arrested
many times before.
It started a long time ago, but
I don't know, man.
I might need to stop the activism.
Just for a while.
You're serious?
I have to work in the gas station,
to provide for my family.
Hello?
Bulldozers?
- Yes.
- Where?
- You want to go?
- Yes, maybe I'll go.
Fine - You won't go?
No, I can't go.
- There's a demolition in the next village?
- That's right.
Any cars pass here? I don't have a jeep.
My car can't pass this road.
To be honest,
the Israelis took all of our cars.
We all sit here with no cars.
- They took all your cars?
- Yes.
- You can walk, it's close.
- It's there, right?
Thank you.
Kids, come home.
Boy, go stand there.
Ilan, you destroy the life
of a family every week.
You refuse all their requests
for building permits.
You are ruining their lives.
How would you feel if somebody
destroyed your home?
Don't bother me in the morning.
You need to hear this.
You know this is a closed
military training ground?
Nobody showed me a warrant.
We'll show you, please leave.
Here is a Jew who is helping them.
You're on Facebook,
people will know you,
and pay you a visit.
You're coming for our home?
Don't move.
Get back.
You come to destroy my house?
Sit here, sit here!
Don't stand up!
What's the matter with you?
- Eat.
- I'm full.
You eat.
I'm full.
Your taste in music improved.
- It's a nice song.
- Yeah?
- Why, I used to have bad taste?
- In the past
It's according to my mood.
- So your mood improved.
- My mood is like shit.
I'm serious, days like these I
It's hard, man.
From the moment I wake up
Only trouble.
I can't stop thinking about
the situation at home.
Because my dad is in prison.
I don't like to have all this responsibility.
Yes, I can understand.
It scares me a bit to end up
becoming my father.
I don't think I have his energy.
But what scares you?
I'm not sure.
Why are you laughing?
I shut down, man.
I ran out of power.
So turn yourself off.
Shut down.
When I was a boy
My father would take us all on trips.
Louder! Louder! Louder!
The best photographer
from Masafer Yatta studios!
The best guy in the village.
The best guy who is sleeping.
The army's car passed by us!
Don't be afraid of them,
we have a special power.
- As long as we have power
- There's the army again!
Who cares?
They're probably running away.
My father is exactly my age now,
in this video.
In these roads near my home,
two kinds of cars pass:
Yellow plates.
Green plates.
Israeli cars are yellow.
They can move freely in the land.
It's illegal for me to drive them.
Palestinian cars are green.
They can't leave the West Bank.
Israel controls both colors.
An entire world built on a division:
Green man.
Yellow man.
They're breaking all the homes
in the village!
100 settlers! Oh my god.
(Basel) Help!
(Basel) Soldier!
Get the cameraman.
(Yuval) Watch out, Basel!
(Basel) Soldier, I'm filming all of this.
You're in Palestinian land.
(Basel) I'm filming all of this.
I'm filming all of it,
soldiers and settlers together.
The soldier is with them.
You bastard!
(Basel)
You're allowing them to attack us.
Why did you destroy our homes?
Go home. Go home Basel.
Go make some article. Go.
Go make some video.
(Basel) Go away, this is my home.
(Basel) This is my home, don't touch me.
I won't move back.
(Basel) We are in our own home.
This is your home? This isn't your home.
(Basel)
Settlers, with weapons, and soldiers
Idiot, go home write an article.
Go make an article, you fool.
(Basel) Who ordered ambulances?
They destroyed the village.
My head hurts.
More settlers are coming!
They're back, you want a war?
He's injured!
Move! Move! Move!
(Yuval) Don't shoot him!
(Basel) I'm a cameraman, I'm in my home.
(Basel) You son of a bitch.
(Yuval) Basel, come here!
(Basel) We're in our homes!
(Basel) You don't see
what the settlers did to us?
(Basel) You act like a criminal.
(Basel) What? More?
More you criminals? More?
More? More?
(Basel)
Give me an onion for the tear gas.
OFER MILITARY PRISON
My father is free, thank god.
That's great.
Thanks for the legal aid.
I'm with the boys now.
You worked too hard for us.
Let's take another photo.
- Here is good.
- Another picture.
For our villages, so they have freedom.
Freedom for our village, huh?
Dance Tasnim, let's see you.
Hello! Who is it?
Daddy.
Nobody worry.
- Dad, come here already.
- I'm coming.
- Come here.
- What do you want?
- Just me and you, daddy.
- What should I do?
- Let's cut it.
- Together?
Film us!
- Shall we do it?
- Yes! Yes!
Go to the school.
Turn around here.
Let's go, after them!
Get in the car!
The army is in the village!
Turn around here, even if it's dangerous.
- Should I turn?
- Go, there are no cars.
- Let's go after them?
- Go, go.
- Turn here!
- Fuck, you scared me.
- From there.
- What's up?
- What happened?
- Fuck them.
Why are you shouting?
Are you driving to a settlement?
Come here, calm yourself down.
You're going crazy.
There's the army. Go, go, go.
Fuck the army is blocking the road.
Take that dirt road there.
What will happen?
He's closing the door on us.
Come from the window.
Stay together.
Go down, you too!
Get down.
Don't be afraid little one.
Where should I go? I study there.
Go back, go back.
Move back, come on.
Everybody down now!
Move back now!
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Go back man.
Move back further.
How can we remain friends,
when you come here and
It could be your brother or friend,
who destroyed my home.
Can this go on?
I'll keep watching
how my home is destroyed,
I rebuild, it's destroyed, I rebuild.
I can't live! My whole life's
purpose became to have a home.
Dad tell them to stop shouting.
But I want this to stop!
Don't give me that nonsense.
How does that help me?
Let me ask you a question.
- I'm still under occupation, right?
- Right.
Okay, nobody does anything
so the situation will change!
- Hamdan, what is this?
- It's a debate.
- No debates, come help us.
- With what?
Bring the taboon from
the neighbor's house.
Come Yuval, let's continue talking.
- Am I wrong Yuval?
- You didn't get me.
People might not accept you here now.
They are feeling a lot of anger.
Basel, I'm going home.
Are we okay, Basel?
What?
- Are you upset?
- No.
- I have no energy, I'm tired.
- Really?
We need to make big mainstream media
talk and write about it.
If not, it will be very bad.
Because if we keep silent,
they're just going to do it.
I did a story about settler violence,
when that was
Paid attention to that for ten minutes.
To the right yes.
- What's his name again?
- Harun.
- First name, Harun?
- Yes.
- Harun
- Abu.
- Abu
- Aram.
He's emotionally devastated,
he refuses to see anyone.
He barely even talks to us,
he only tolerates
me and his sister.
I can understand it.
So can we just see him?
All the journalists that came here.
They all saw Harun,
but nothing changed for him.
There he is, still in a dirty cave.
The Israeli army won't allow us
to build a house for him.
If we could have only one room,
a clean place for him.
It would give him hope to live.
Let's see him.
Can they enter?
They just want to see him,
even if he's sleeping.
Sorry.
What is he saying?
Leave me, go out.
- What's wrong?
- Go out.
Leave!
We were a burden on you.
I wish you health.
- Thank you.
- You are very strong.
- Strength comes from god.
- Sure.
I see my son, paralyzed, in front of me,
and I can't help him.
He screams from pain.
I have a son too, if this happened
to me I'd go crazy.
My mind often gets lost,
my brain just stops.
My body stops, when I see him suffering,
and I can't help him.
I tell him if I could give you anything,
give my life
so you will live, I would, but I can't.
I understand.
I can't help him.
We need to go, thank you.
Thank you Harun's mother.
Thank you.
I hope I could help him.
I hope god takes him,
and relieves him from this life. I hope.
Come here, Basel.
They destroy us slowly.
Oh god, oh god.
Every week, a home.
Look at the settlement.
They're watching our demolition.
Don't move from the small tree.
Leave our land this moment!
You're coming for the water well?
- It's an illegal well.
- What's your problem?
Don't disturb our work, move back.
Go back.
This water, we need it, it's our land!
For water, you need
a permit from the army.
But you refuse to give us permits!
Why is it always illegal only for us?
Stop it! You filled the well up!
Aren't you ashamed?
Water is a human right.
Every week a new family must decide:
Endure, or leave their land.
If a family leaves, they lose their land.
Most rent an apartment,
in the crowded city.
There the army aims to concentrate us.
But most villages endure.
The hardest struggle,
is to stay on the land.
Masafer Yatta exists for one reason.
People who hold on to life.
Lift him up.
Put him outside.
More and more families
are forced into caves,
As the army's home
demolitions continue.
The world is going crazy, man.
Why?
I feel the world will end soon.
Look at this comment.
Peace, peace, peace for Palestine.
The post I wrote reached 2,366 people.
- It's excellent, I think.
- Yeah.
When will we get married Yuval?
I don't know.
Do you want a family?
I don't know. It's complicated.
It's very complicated.
Because of money?
- Not just that.
- What else?
I don't know, man.
What?
There's no stability in this land.
It would be so nice with stability one day.
Then you'll come visit me,
not always me visiting you.
- Right?
- Maybe.
They won't give us permits.
If there's stability and a democratic state,
you'll get all the permits you want.
You won't need to ask
for army permits anymore.
Right?
"If."
They deprive us of our rights.
They have great military
and technological power.
But
They shouldn't forget how once,
they too were weak.
They suffered like this.
And they won't succeed,
with all their strength they will fail.
They will never make
Palestinians leave this land.
What do you think?
I think we need
I think people need to figure out
how to make change.
That's the question.
Somebody watches something,
they're touched, and then?
Exactly.
What can we do?
I hope we'll change this bad reality.
I hope.
Netanyahu promised revenge
that will be more painful
For the attack Hamas carried out
killing Israelis
in unprecedented numbers.
Israel killed thousands
of Palestinians in Gaza.
...while hundreds of Israelis
are held hostage.
(Basel) Hello!
- Yes?
- Does somebody speak Arabic?
- No, what happened?
- Send the police now,
armed settlers are invading our homes.
- Settlers?
- Yes! Yes!
Guys, get an ambulance,
settlers are shooting at us.
Hurry up!
Guys, the army
is surrounding the village.
Basel where are you?
Basel, come home quickly.
Slowly.
Something is about to happen.
Come here!
Come fast!
What is happening people?
The soldiers are pointing at a map.
I'm five years old.
My first memory.
A light woke me up.
This was my father's first arrest.
I'm seven years old.
The first protest I remember.
This is my land.
I sat in the field with my mother.
This is my grandfather.
And this is my father.
Daddy!
That time, I began to realize
my parents were activists.
You're under arrest, don't move.
I would think:
My father is invincible.
Today, his gas station is
the center of his life.
He built it under our house.
To the sheep? Let's go.
- Daa!
- Daa!
- Daa!
- Daa!
Little Elias. My brother's son.
- What?
- Daa.
He says a lot with just one sound.
- Elias.
- Daa!
When I was a boy like him,
People around me started to film.
My name is Basel. I herd sheep.
Every day at 2 PM in my village.
Masafer Yatta
is the community I grew up in.
We're a community of 20 small villages
on the West Bank mountains.
I started filming,
when we started to end.
1,000 Palestinians from 8 villages
in the Occupied Southern West Bank
could be facing eviction
thanks to a ruling
by Israel's supreme court.
More than 1,000 Palestinians could soon
be evicted from their homes.
Masafer Yatta in the Southern West Bank.
They face one of the single
biggest expulsion decisions.
Since the Israeli occupation
of the Palestinian territories
began in 1967.
Yes.
Hurry up, get the car,
they might destroy my village.
- Basel?
- Where are the cameras?
Maybe under the mirror.
Where are you going?
There it is.
- Eat something before you go.
- No. I have to run.
Come quick.
You come to destroy our homes?
Don't fear my dear,
they will leave soon.
They won't stay with us for long.
Curse them.
- The girls are still in the bedroom.
- Stay back.
- My daughters are there.
- Doesn't matter, move back.
Why treat us like this?
Move! Go there!
Soldiers, stand in formation!
I need air, oh my god.
Don't worry my love.
I don't want them to...
They're taking our home.
What will we do?
Put that in the corner.
Organize our things.
Put your clothes in the cave.
Do you have a place for this?
Put our beds deep inside the cave.
Kids don't go far, help us!
Bring the laundry machine inside.
Are we going to live in a cave now?
Oh my, nothing is left.
They destroyed even the sheep pen.
- You're Basel?
- Yes.
I'm Yuval, how are you?
Yuval, please be sensitive
with the people.
They asked if I'm an Israeli journalist?
I don't know.
How many homes remain in this village?
Few remain.
People go to live in caves, under us.
One family lives there.
- Hello.
- How are you?
I speak Arabic.
I speak English,
don't talk to me in Arabic.
He's a journalist.
- Where are you from?
- I'm from Be'er Sheva.
Nice. So you're Arabian?
No, I'm Israeli.
You're Israeli? Seriously?
You're a "human rights" Israeli?
Something like that.
What do you think about what
your country is doing to us?
I think it's a crime.
How could your court of "justice" decide,
That our land
will become the army's land?
When did your family start living here?
- 1900.
- 1900?
Our ancestors settled here in the 1830s.
They made us strangers in our own land.
What will you do now?
The army wants to take all our land.
Yes.
You talked to the soldiers today?
I asked a soldier if he's ashamed
to demolish my home.
He said, that's the law,
why should I be ashamed?
We won't leave.
- Who is your dad?
- Nasser.
Oh, your dad has a gas station.
Your dad is the fuel guy.
Basel, thanks for the help today.
Welcome to our home.
Come inside.
Sit down, relax.
How are you?
I'm great.
Nice home.
Meet my mother, my sister, and Basel.
We're all one big family,
everyone is welcome here.
We'll drink coffee with ginger?
Do you like ginger coffee?
What's that?
- Ginger coffee.
- Sure.
When I see what's happening Yuval,
I get so angry I want to throw rocks.
But I hold myself back.
Of course you're angry.
It's as if I turn into someone else.
I can't control this feeling.
Total destruction.
It's your relatives who
are doing this to us.
- Where were you born?
- In Be'er Sheva.
The place you were born in,
you can never forget it.
Am I right or wrong?
- Right, it's impossible to forget.
- It's impossible to forget.
So how do they expect us
to forget our place?
I believe we can stop the expulsion.
If we are active
and we document on the ground.
It will force the United States
to pressure Israel.
This might stop our expulsion.
I'll send you a link to my article.
I hope you'll be in touch.
Bye Basel, thanks again.
SHARE NOW
Finish the game and go to sleep.
- I didn't have time to play mom.
- You played too much!
Continue tomorrow.
Israeli courts decided
to ruin the villages,
And evict the
people, so the army
can train on their lands.
Daddy, let's go to school.
Not many kids will go to school today.
The teacher said:
ask your father to take you.
Really?
Even with what the army is doing?
Come on dad,
all the kids are going to school!
Okay, let's go.
We have grass - it exists!
We have a mountain - it exists!
We have a chicken house - it exists!
We have a house - it exists!
We have... a rock - it exists!
In Masafer Yatta,
we decided 20 years ago,
to welcome anyone who stands with us.
Soldiers broke into our home at night.
They said that if we invite Israeli
or international activists again,
they will do something even worse to us.
Can you translate?
I grew up in a home full of activists.
Glimpses into other lives.
My village when I was a boy.
Masafer Yatta is known for its
ancient cave homes.
When I was born,
the army ordered our removal.
Our electricity is a security threat?
You're coming here to ruin our lives.
They said they need our land
for tank training.
CLOSED ARMY TRAINING ZONE!
Our villages appear on maps
from the 19th century.
But the army doesn't
recognize that the villages exist.
On our land they built
Israeli settlements.
To fight the expulsion,
our villages went to court.
A court that isn't ours.
It took 22 years,
for the Israeli court to decide:
Masafer Yatta will be destroyed
to become a military training ground.
You stay here.
We will go down to them.
Do you have a camera?
Why?
The army appointed this man,
to execute the court's expulsion orders.
Ilan, listen to me.
We've lived here for ages,
you're wasting time, we won't leave.
I was born here 70 years ago.
We're done here, soldiers come with me.
Ilan! Ilan!
DEMOLITION ORDER 1455
He signs each demolition order
with the name 'Ilan'.
He gave them to all the families.
Read it.
You're thieves.
If you had children,
could I do this to them?
Could I?
I'll arrest you if you don't leave.
(Basel) Dad, leave it!
You bring all these forces
for a playground!
We won't have a playground now?
They put it on the playground.
Leave!
What don't you get?
Use your legs, and go there.
What about you?
Do you live here?
Do you live here?
Do you realize you're in
our training zone?
This is a military
training zone,
you're not allowed to live here.
Ilan, please listen!
Either we kick you out,
or you leave on your own.
Everyone get the hell out of here.
Ilan, you're taking everything from us.
A lot of army is here.
They plan a big demolition?
We don't know.
They're driving towards
one of my neighbors.
(Basel) Now the soldiers arrived here.
Aren't you ashamed to do this?
Aren't you afraid of god?
Go back!
Move back now!
Get back!
I'll push you all the way back!
I speak Hebrew, don't shout.
I hope that bulldozer
falls on your head.
Why are you taking our homes?
Why destroy the bathroom?
Stop it, that's enough.
Why are you still here?
Stay back, stay back.
You ruined my home, leave happy.
Ilan, let me handle her.
Please move back.
Enough! Make him leave.
What's left?
Move back.
They didn't let me take our things
before they ruined my home.
Our kitchen is buried
under the house debris.
Do you have any other place to go?
We have no other land.
It's our land,
that's why we suffer for it.
Doha, come here.
We'll eat a bag of bread for dinner?
Kids, come and eat.
How can we live in a cave?
Our family is too big.
We'll rebuild secretly at night.
What are you doing?
What are you doing?
- I'm spinning.
- Really?
So nobody catches me.
You're my love, right?
Tomorrow will be a new day.
Hey Basel! What's up?
- Hello.
- Hi.
- My name is Yuval.
- I'm Hamdan.
He's a journalist that wants to write
about the demolitions.
Only if you agree.
But does anyone actually
care to read about it?
Honestly, not many.
I hope that will change.
Oh, my heart.
My god!
My god...
Pour the cement.
Basel is better at this.
I hate working.
I'm like the son of Benjamin Netanyahu.
Wait, not like that Yuval, damn you.
At the speed Yuval works,
we'll never finish.
Stop, stop.
You told me you're bad at this work,
but you're good.
I worked in Be'er Sheva,
to fund my university studies.
- Doing what?
- Construction, like this.
- Really?
- Yes.
I'm always the cheap labor guy.
Let's hide it?
We hid it.
We hid it from them,
but they're always watching.
This guy is a spy, I'm telling you.
Do you smoke?
You're Israeli.
What do you mean?
Arabs build for you
and you destroy for them.
You destroy Palestinian homes.
Why, Yuval?
But how is it to build?
It's fine, look at my hands.
- You'll go home today?
- Maybe.
I'll go home to take a shower.
Of course you'll go back.
Did you go to the army?
I left it,
I was meant to be in intelligence.
- Because you speak Arabic?
- Yeah.
How are you so fluent in Arabic?
I did a course with my friend
after high school.
Learning Arabic really changed
my political views.
So when the army wanted
me to serve in intelligence,
I refused, I didn't serve.
It's a long story.
Basel, send me the pictures
of the demolition.
I know I haven't been
writing enough lately.
I'm in Masafer Yatta all the time.
I'll send more articles about it soon.
I need fuel.
Take money.
Which village in Masafer
Yatta are you from? Jinba.
They're taking everything.
They don't want us to rebuild.
Soldiers, after me.
Confiscate the building tools,
grab that shovel.
You're here to search for a saw?
For a drill? This equipment is ours!
You enter their village
to take building tools?
Look, families live here.
(Basel) Yuval, leave him.
It's their building equipment!
Why do you care?
I care because it's all done in my name.
Get the fuck back, hey!
Stay back.
Don't get close.
My camera stopped working.
Leave our generator! Give it back!
(Basel) I'm filming you!
Don't take our generator!
Why do you want it?
Stop it.
Fuck you! You son of a bitch!
Stay back!
Pull the generator from them.
He killed him!
He killed him!
Harun!
Harun!
(Basel) They're shooting people.
Ambulance! Ambulance!
Harun!
Ambulance!
Harun!
Don't shoot!
He killed him.
Bring the car.
God, please make him recover.
It's all I want in the world.
- It happened in front of you?
- Yes, in front of me.
They shot my son in front of me.
I lifted his head and his
blood poured on me.
In front of my eyes.
In front of me.
Harun, can you hear me?
If you can hear me, blink.
Blink again.
Harun Abu Aram is paralyzed
from the shoulders down.
After soldiers shot him
as they took his building tools.
While he tried to hold on to them.
JUSTICE FOR HARUN
- Basel?
- Yeah?
Mom said I can join you.
Give me balloons.
From both sides of the wall!
From both sides of the wall!
We will stop home demolitions!
We will stop home demolitions!
We weren't born to live oppressed!
We weren't born to live oppressed!
From both sides of the wall.
From both sides of the wall.
We will stop home demolitions...
he has grenades.
Stay together everyone.
They're going to throw stun grenades.
Raise your voice! Raise your voice!
Raise your voice! Raise your voice!
If you shout, you won't die!
If you shout, you won't die!
Raise your voice! Raise your voice!
Please, everybody go back carefully.
Children follow the adults.
Shit.
In the protest a soldier
told me to watch out.
He said they will come to arrest me later.
You have to be prepared.
You look so tired.
Look at him run!
Hey Elias, how are you?
Say hello.
Say hello to Yuval.
Give a high five.
You're afraid?
Why do you come to me?
Me and you, we're fighting.
What do you want?
This is all food, what should I get you?
- Daa.
- Okay Basel, go home!
- Daa!
- Okay Salem, go home!
Give this date to Yuval.
Tell him to eat it.
Tell him to eat and enjoy.
Daa!
No, no! Give it to him. Hand it like this.
I need to write something
about the protest today.
I have to write more.
The article I wrote
on Harun's mom,
didn't get many views.
Okay, it's always like that, you are...
What?
- I feel you're a little enthusiastic.
- What?
I feel you're enthusiastic.
What do you mean?
You want everything to happen quickly.
As if you came to solve everything...
In 10 days, and then go back home.
This has been going on for decades.
We have to stop.
You really feel I want
to go home in 10 days?
- What?
- You feel I want to go in 10 days?
Go where?
No, you are...
Enthusiastic like you want to
end the occupation in 10 days.
The article didn't get enough views...
You want it all fast.
Okay, so how should it be?
I don't know, but surely not like you think.
I don't think it will end in 10 days,
what am I, stupid?
You're enthusiastic.
So? What's the problem?
No problem, but you won't succeed.
It requires patience.
Get used to failing, you're a loser.
Let's check the fuel.
- I won't be able to sleep tonight.
- Why?
Because of that soldier,
from army intelligence.
He told me at the protest:
Basel, we will arrest you tonight.
What happened?
The army is here?
- They're at the entrance?
- Yes.
Wow.
Where are the cameras?
They're waiting near those trees there.
And two army jeeps entered from there.
- Two jeeps?
- In the woods, yes.
There's also a strange light there.
You think they'll come to our home?
- It's them down there?
- Yes it is.
They will enter with many soldiers.
- Go wear a warmer coat.
- I'm okay mom.
It's cold.
We don't know what will happen.
Don't be afraid.
How can I not be afraid?
Where did they go?
They're coming?
Basel, don't go there.
(Basel) This is what's happening
in my village now.
Soldiers are everywhere.
Back off.
Who do you think you're filming,
you son of a bitch?
Open the door.
Enter the home.
What are you doing here?
Please take your stuff out of this house.
2, 7, 6, 8, 7
- This is revenge for the protest?
- None of your business.
- I'm just asking.
- Okay, we replied.
You searched, nobody is in the house?
They entered all the rooms,
and asked where's Basel?
I said: I don't know him.
I stayed hidden.
But why arrest you?
Maybe for filming them yesterday.
Yuval, you talked to them?
I tried, they didn't answer much.
They wanted 'Basel, or his father'.
They wanted one of us.
You have school now.
When I try to wake you,
I hear Mommy I can't, I'm too tired.
But for the army? You wake up fast!
They came to check if you're
sleeping well at night?
It's two in the morning, and you're
doing operations in our houses?
They're doing stun grenades.
Wait a minute. My wife isn't feeling well.
Get in the car.
It's eight in the morning,
they're starting a new policy.
This is a training zone,
you can't drive here.
Who decided?
- I want to return to my home.
- It's illegal to drive here.
But I need a car to visit
my son in the hospital!
Palestinians can't drive here!
Understand? Explain it to her.
Masafer Yatta will not give up!
It'll take time, but at the end
we believe that we will win.
Hello everyone,
since the morning until now.
Demolitions of homes happening
in Masafer Yatta.
- What are you doing?
- Destroying.
That's the law. It's all legal.
But it's a law made by settlers!
If you have a problem,
take it up with the law.
We want an ID card! We want a state!
To resist, it takes time.
One water drop doesn't make change.
But keep dropping the water,
and it will make change.
It's happening also this morning.
That this convey is coming
to Masafer Yatta.
A bulldozer is coming.
Two bulldozers.
There are hundreds of demolition orders.
People don't know
which house and village,
they're going to choose today.
Destroy everything here,
there, and there.
And there.
One, two, three, four!
Occupation no more!
One, two, three, four!
Occupation no more!
Occupation no more!
Why are you choking him?
(Basel) I'm filming you!
They're refusing to give us permits.
Or master plans for our villages.
They come and demolish our homes.
And keep saying in the media
that we're building illegally.
Basel I'll wash your clothes,
so if you go to jail
you'll have a bag ready.
Nothing on mainstream news
about the demolitions.
As if it happened, but also,
it never happened.
We'll keep filming everything.
And we have to think
How to reach more people
in different ways.
That would be excellent I think.
- Why are you on your phone all day?
- It's from stress.
Stress, stress, stress.
You're afraid something will happen?
Yes, but also I'm stressed
because I have nothing to do.
What do you mean?
I don't know.
What?
What can I do besides
being on my phone?
Huh?
I have nothing else, only my phone.
What would you like to do?
Anything else.
But you studied law, can't you practice it?
That's
Something I lost hope in.
Students like me studied so hard
for a law degree but
But our economy is ruined,
you can find work only in Israel.
- What work?
- Construction. No other option.
Like you never went to university.
What do you think?
If you were in my place,
what would you think?
You come here from outside,
you can move freely, you have a job.
I would be frustrated.
Basel honestly, I don't know how
I would be if I were you.
How I would have so much
Hope and power like you.
Right?
Yes, but sometimes I think
too hard about it all
And I feel this huge depression in me.
What's wrong?
Nothing, go bring wood,
for your brother Harun.
I want to make a fire.
Bring it to me.
They're broken?
Excellent.
Is somebody coming?
Nobody is coming.
Watch it kids.
That way, that way.
Move from the way.
Harun, we won't forget you!
We're all your sisters!
We're all your sisters!
No to the occupation!
You destroyed my family.
Even our car you took.
Nobody covers treatment
for my paralyzed son.
My son lives in a cave,
because the army doesn't allow us
to build a home for him.
It's a dirty cave,
and I take him to a doctor
since his chest gets infected.
Come visit me my dear,
come see my son.
Get off the road.
Slowly.
Slowly, slowly.
This is a story of Basel Adra.
A post from Basel Adra.
Basel thank you so much
for being with us today.
I follow you closely on Instagram.
He spent years documenting
Israeli efforts,
To evict Palestinians
living in Masafer Yatta.
There's a hate from them towards me.
Just because I take my phone or camera,
And I go film them when they're doing,
like, these crimes.
I want to talk to you for a second
about Masafer Yatta.
Forced evictions and demolitions
in Masafer Yatta.
- Masafer Yatta.
- Masafer Yatta.
Over 2,500 Palestinians are facing
forced expulsion.
As an Israeli, it's very
important for me to stress
that I don't think we can have security
if Palestinians don't have freedom.
They live with no voting rights
under military occupation.
Basel, a guy my age who lives there,
can't even leave the West Bank.
And we destroy their homes every week.
You're against Jewish people,
in everything you do.
You don't even know me,
why do you say I'm against Jews?
They're families of farmers,
on their private land.
What you're saying is a lie.
They're invaders in a
military training ground.
Why are you doing this?
They build illegal homes,
inside a military training zone.
And people call the expulsion
a war crime?
I think they don't know
what a war crime is.
He documents the eviction
of his community in Masafer Yatta.
- Level ten, really?
- Ten! Ten!
Get ready!
Our protests are effecting the army.
We do 3 protests a week,
it has an impact.
They didn't invade our villages
for a long time.
They didn't give new demolition orders.
That's why we can't stop,
even if they arrest people.
The army would be pleased if we stop.
But you should be more careful Basel.
Me and you should leave
this place together.
- Really?
- Yes.
Where will we go?
To the Maldives.
A donkey.
- He's laughing at your idea.
- Why?
The idea of leaving.
That's it, you'll go to sleep?
You want to go home, what can I do?
I have to go.
- You're running away?
- I'm going home.
- Why?
- Because.
I'm going to visit my mom.
Well, I have no way to leave this place.
PASSAGE FOR ISRAELI CARS ONLY
Give mom some food.
- Maa!
- Maa!
He loves to say maa.
Play Elias his song, so he dances.
Basel, there will be
a demolition tomorrow,
I can feel it.
It's a feeling.
I heard army helicopters all day.
Doha, those are pants, not a shirt.
Do you want to flip over?
Lift your hand, let's move it a bit.
Come on, hurry up!
Today we will learn the alphabet.
Let's all look at the first letter.
- What is it?
- Alef!
Who knows the next one?
Who knows the answer?
Me!
When I was a boy,
My village wanted to
build the first school.
The plan was to work together
all summer.
It's illegal to build here,
you don't have a permit!
It's a school!
It's not just a building,
it's for our children! This is a school.
We want to live!
Like you're living, we want to live!
The army threatened
to arrest the workers.
My mom loves to tell us,
how she had an idea:
Women and children will
work during the day.
Don't get close to the girls!
I'll hit you with the stick.
Men will work at night, in secret.
Forward!
Sides!
Up! Down!
That's how the school
I attended, was built.
The nonviolent struggle for a school,
Led Tony Blair to visit us.
He walked around our village
for 7 minutes.
Here he is next to our home.
Next to my father.
Who speaks no English,
and never went to school.
After he returned to the UK,
Israel cancelled
the demolition orders for
the school and homes
in the street he walked in.
This is a story about power.
I grew up hearing it.
They're entering.
They're entering the village.
It could be our chicken house.
It could be the neighbor's chicken house.
It could be their home.
- Nasser, stay calm.
- Yes, of course.
They might arrest you.
You heat up quickly, be careful.
Who owns these chickens?
I'll kick them out.
Ilan you shit!
Nobody is allowed to move.
Why are you here?
Why invade our village?
It's our village.
We can build in our village.
Why are you here? Why are you here?
Go home.
Our pigeons were there.
Where are they?
- They destroyed your chicken house?
- Yes.
The little pigeon is alive.
No, it died.
It's alive, a little one.
Inside the barrel?
Film son, why are you leaving me alone?
Film Basel, they're still here.
Forward! Move!
(Basel) I'm filming you.
I'm filming you!
You're just like criminals.
- You're expelling us.
- If he gets closer, arrest him.
Arrest me! On what grounds?
Grab him.
On what grounds?
I have a journalist card.
I have a journalist card!
Shut up!
Don't hit my son!
Leave our village! Go away!
Leave you shit!
- Shoot. Shoot me.
- Move back.
- Shoot me.
- Move back.
Get an ambulance.
Leave him.
Run Basel, run!
Get up son, run!
Run Basel!
I hope, I hope, I hope.
What are they pointing at?
Enter your home!
Enter your home!
- I'm a journalist.
- It doesn't matter, enter your home.
Do you understand?
Hide yourself Basel.
And don't let them see your face!
Move or I'll use force.
Film from there.
Arrest him.
Take him to the jeep.
I'm a threat? I am a danger?
Let him go!
You animal, let him go!
Let him go!
- Where did they take your father?
- We're not sure.
Wow, Basel.
He's with the army now,
and they're vengeful.
They take you
and it's a form of emotional torture.
My father was arrested
many times before.
It started a long time ago, but
I don't know, man.
I might need to stop the activism.
Just for a while.
You're serious?
I have to work in the gas station,
to provide for my family.
Hello?
Bulldozers?
- Yes.
- Where?
- You want to go?
- Yes, maybe I'll go.
Fine - You won't go?
No, I can't go.
- There's a demolition in the next village?
- That's right.
Any cars pass here? I don't have a jeep.
My car can't pass this road.
To be honest,
the Israelis took all of our cars.
We all sit here with no cars.
- They took all your cars?
- Yes.
- You can walk, it's close.
- It's there, right?
Thank you.
Kids, come home.
Boy, go stand there.
Ilan, you destroy the life
of a family every week.
You refuse all their requests
for building permits.
You are ruining their lives.
How would you feel if somebody
destroyed your home?
Don't bother me in the morning.
You need to hear this.
You know this is a closed
military training ground?
Nobody showed me a warrant.
We'll show you, please leave.
Here is a Jew who is helping them.
You're on Facebook,
people will know you,
and pay you a visit.
You're coming for our home?
Don't move.
Get back.
You come to destroy my house?
Sit here, sit here!
Don't stand up!
What's the matter with you?
- Eat.
- I'm full.
You eat.
I'm full.
Your taste in music improved.
- It's a nice song.
- Yeah?
- Why, I used to have bad taste?
- In the past
It's according to my mood.
- So your mood improved.
- My mood is like shit.
I'm serious, days like these I
It's hard, man.
From the moment I wake up
Only trouble.
I can't stop thinking about
the situation at home.
Because my dad is in prison.
I don't like to have all this responsibility.
Yes, I can understand.
It scares me a bit to end up
becoming my father.
I don't think I have his energy.
But what scares you?
I'm not sure.
Why are you laughing?
I shut down, man.
I ran out of power.
So turn yourself off.
Shut down.
When I was a boy
My father would take us all on trips.
Louder! Louder! Louder!
The best photographer
from Masafer Yatta studios!
The best guy in the village.
The best guy who is sleeping.
The army's car passed by us!
Don't be afraid of them,
we have a special power.
- As long as we have power
- There's the army again!
Who cares?
They're probably running away.
My father is exactly my age now,
in this video.
In these roads near my home,
two kinds of cars pass:
Yellow plates.
Green plates.
Israeli cars are yellow.
They can move freely in the land.
It's illegal for me to drive them.
Palestinian cars are green.
They can't leave the West Bank.
Israel controls both colors.
An entire world built on a division:
Green man.
Yellow man.
They're breaking all the homes
in the village!
100 settlers! Oh my god.
(Basel) Help!
(Basel) Soldier!
Get the cameraman.
(Yuval) Watch out, Basel!
(Basel) Soldier, I'm filming all of this.
You're in Palestinian land.
(Basel) I'm filming all of this.
I'm filming all of it,
soldiers and settlers together.
The soldier is with them.
You bastard!
(Basel)
You're allowing them to attack us.
Why did you destroy our homes?
Go home. Go home Basel.
Go make some article. Go.
Go make some video.
(Basel) Go away, this is my home.
(Basel) This is my home, don't touch me.
I won't move back.
(Basel) We are in our own home.
This is your home? This isn't your home.
(Basel)
Settlers, with weapons, and soldiers
Idiot, go home write an article.
Go make an article, you fool.
(Basel) Who ordered ambulances?
They destroyed the village.
My head hurts.
More settlers are coming!
They're back, you want a war?
He's injured!
Move! Move! Move!
(Yuval) Don't shoot him!
(Basel) I'm a cameraman, I'm in my home.
(Basel) You son of a bitch.
(Yuval) Basel, come here!
(Basel) We're in our homes!
(Basel) You don't see
what the settlers did to us?
(Basel) You act like a criminal.
(Basel) What? More?
More you criminals? More?
More? More?
(Basel)
Give me an onion for the tear gas.
OFER MILITARY PRISON
My father is free, thank god.
That's great.
Thanks for the legal aid.
I'm with the boys now.
You worked too hard for us.
Let's take another photo.
- Here is good.
- Another picture.
For our villages, so they have freedom.
Freedom for our village, huh?
Dance Tasnim, let's see you.
Hello! Who is it?
Daddy.
Nobody worry.
- Dad, come here already.
- I'm coming.
- Come here.
- What do you want?
- Just me and you, daddy.
- What should I do?
- Let's cut it.
- Together?
Film us!
- Shall we do it?
- Yes! Yes!
Go to the school.
Turn around here.
Let's go, after them!
Get in the car!
The army is in the village!
Turn around here, even if it's dangerous.
- Should I turn?
- Go, there are no cars.
- Let's go after them?
- Go, go.
- Turn here!
- Fuck, you scared me.
- From there.
- What's up?
- What happened?
- Fuck them.
Why are you shouting?
Are you driving to a settlement?
Come here, calm yourself down.
You're going crazy.
There's the army. Go, go, go.
Fuck the army is blocking the road.
Take that dirt road there.
What will happen?
He's closing the door on us.
Come from the window.
Stay together.
Go down, you too!
Get down.
Don't be afraid little one.
Where should I go? I study there.
Go back, go back.
Move back, come on.
Everybody down now!
Move back now!
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Go back man.
Move back further.
How can we remain friends,
when you come here and
It could be your brother or friend,
who destroyed my home.
Can this go on?
I'll keep watching
how my home is destroyed,
I rebuild, it's destroyed, I rebuild.
I can't live! My whole life's
purpose became to have a home.
Dad tell them to stop shouting.
But I want this to stop!
Don't give me that nonsense.
How does that help me?
Let me ask you a question.
- I'm still under occupation, right?
- Right.
Okay, nobody does anything
so the situation will change!
- Hamdan, what is this?
- It's a debate.
- No debates, come help us.
- With what?
Bring the taboon from
the neighbor's house.
Come Yuval, let's continue talking.
- Am I wrong Yuval?
- You didn't get me.
People might not accept you here now.
They are feeling a lot of anger.
Basel, I'm going home.
Are we okay, Basel?
What?
- Are you upset?
- No.
- I have no energy, I'm tired.
- Really?
We need to make big mainstream media
talk and write about it.
If not, it will be very bad.
Because if we keep silent,
they're just going to do it.
I did a story about settler violence,
when that was
Paid attention to that for ten minutes.
To the right yes.
- What's his name again?
- Harun.
- First name, Harun?
- Yes.
- Harun
- Abu.
- Abu
- Aram.
He's emotionally devastated,
he refuses to see anyone.
He barely even talks to us,
he only tolerates
me and his sister.
I can understand it.
So can we just see him?
All the journalists that came here.
They all saw Harun,
but nothing changed for him.
There he is, still in a dirty cave.
The Israeli army won't allow us
to build a house for him.
If we could have only one room,
a clean place for him.
It would give him hope to live.
Let's see him.
Can they enter?
They just want to see him,
even if he's sleeping.
Sorry.
What is he saying?
Leave me, go out.
- What's wrong?
- Go out.
Leave!
We were a burden on you.
I wish you health.
- Thank you.
- You are very strong.
- Strength comes from god.
- Sure.
I see my son, paralyzed, in front of me,
and I can't help him.
He screams from pain.
I have a son too, if this happened
to me I'd go crazy.
My mind often gets lost,
my brain just stops.
My body stops, when I see him suffering,
and I can't help him.
I tell him if I could give you anything,
give my life
so you will live, I would, but I can't.
I understand.
I can't help him.
We need to go, thank you.
Thank you Harun's mother.
Thank you.
I hope I could help him.
I hope god takes him,
and relieves him from this life. I hope.
Come here, Basel.
They destroy us slowly.
Oh god, oh god.
Every week, a home.
Look at the settlement.
They're watching our demolition.
Don't move from the small tree.
Leave our land this moment!
You're coming for the water well?
- It's an illegal well.
- What's your problem?
Don't disturb our work, move back.
Go back.
This water, we need it, it's our land!
For water, you need
a permit from the army.
But you refuse to give us permits!
Why is it always illegal only for us?
Stop it! You filled the well up!
Aren't you ashamed?
Water is a human right.
Every week a new family must decide:
Endure, or leave their land.
If a family leaves, they lose their land.
Most rent an apartment,
in the crowded city.
There the army aims to concentrate us.
But most villages endure.
The hardest struggle,
is to stay on the land.
Masafer Yatta exists for one reason.
People who hold on to life.
Lift him up.
Put him outside.
More and more families
are forced into caves,
As the army's home
demolitions continue.
The world is going crazy, man.
Why?
I feel the world will end soon.
Look at this comment.
Peace, peace, peace for Palestine.
The post I wrote reached 2,366 people.
- It's excellent, I think.
- Yeah.
When will we get married Yuval?
I don't know.
Do you want a family?
I don't know. It's complicated.
It's very complicated.
Because of money?
- Not just that.
- What else?
I don't know, man.
What?
There's no stability in this land.
It would be so nice with stability one day.
Then you'll come visit me,
not always me visiting you.
- Right?
- Maybe.
They won't give us permits.
If there's stability and a democratic state,
you'll get all the permits you want.
You won't need to ask
for army permits anymore.
Right?
"If."
They deprive us of our rights.
They have great military
and technological power.
But
They shouldn't forget how once,
they too were weak.
They suffered like this.
And they won't succeed,
with all their strength they will fail.
They will never make
Palestinians leave this land.
What do you think?
I think we need
I think people need to figure out
how to make change.
That's the question.
Somebody watches something,
they're touched, and then?
Exactly.
What can we do?
I hope we'll change this bad reality.
I hope.
Netanyahu promised revenge
that will be more painful
For the attack Hamas carried out
killing Israelis
in unprecedented numbers.
Israel killed thousands
of Palestinians in Gaza.
...while hundreds of Israelis
are held hostage.
(Basel) Hello!
- Yes?
- Does somebody speak Arabic?
- No, what happened?
- Send the police now,
armed settlers are invading our homes.
- Settlers?
- Yes! Yes!
Guys, get an ambulance,
settlers are shooting at us.
Hurry up!