February 15, 2024 – While limited in scope and low in budget, this Israeli-Palestinian effectively illustrates the heartless, deliberate, systematic effort to remove Palestinians from their land on the West Bank adjacent to Israel.

The Israeli army moves in to the Masafer Yatta region of the West Bank, tearing down houses, businesses and schools allegedly for a military training area. According to the film, the real reason for all this destruction is really to clear the land for Jewish settlers.

The history of Palestine and the West Bank is unbelievably long and complex, and the current political situation in the area is complicated and controversial. This film doesn't try to explain all that. Instead, it just concentrates on a few Palestinians, and one Israeli journalist working in one small area to document their removal from their land in a limited time frame.

This documentary was filmed by Palestinian and Israeli activists from 2019 into 2023, and things got worse after that because of the Hamas attack on Israel and the war in Gaza, which led to more land takeovers and more military aggression against the Palestinians in the West Bank.

Palestinian Basel Adra and Israeli reporter, Yuval Abraham are key figures in the film. One or both of them appear in most of the scenes of the film. They spend a lot of time interacting with each other and with the Israeli army. They spend some time discussing the future of the West Bank.

While most of the Palestinians in the film appreciate Yuval's efforts to publicize their plight, some include Yuval in their anger against all Israelis, for destroying their homes and taking their land. Even so, Palestinian resistance in Masafer Yatta remains surprisingly non-violent.

During the day, military forces destroy the homes and schools of the Palestinians, not all at once, but gradually, inexorably. At night, the Palestinians rebuild. In one scene, the military forces take away construction tools from the Palestinians, one man, Harun, who won't let go of his construction tools, is shot and killed by soldiers.

Harun didn't die right away. He lived on in agony and squalor in a cave for months. In one scene, Harun's mother said, “I tell him if I could give you anything, give my life so you will live, I would, but I can't ... I can't help him ... I hope god takes him, and relieves him from this life.”

Throughout the film, the destruction of the small Palestinian settlement continues at intervals. A water well is filled in with concrete. Crop irrigation systems are destroyed. Houses, barns, schools, are destroyed. Anyone who leaves, looses their land to the Israeli settlers.

A reporter asks a woman where she will go now that her house is destroyed. She replies, “We have no other land. It's our land, that's why we suffer for it.” This movie is all about this kind of slow, relentless, destruction, with the occasional protest march, clash and shooting, one of which is actually caught on camera (not Harun, but another Palestinian, shot by an Israeli settler).

The mainstream media covers the West Bank situation sporadically and inadequately. This movie presents just one side the the dispute and doesn't even begin to cover all the history, legalities and controversies involved. It just shows us the suffering of some people in a small, disputed area of land, and it does that well. This movie rates a B.

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