Random Thoughts on Everything

I Have No Other Land

If I shut my eyes and plug my ears would bad things never happen? Has a falling tree really come down in a forest if no one hears, nor sees its fall?

That was my thinking a week ago when I promised myself I wouldn’t watch anything from this year’s Oscar ceremony. Not with its Jewish stars too scared of loosing their popularity to speak up in a meaningful way. Not after the 2024 wearing of red hands on lapels; a brazen pro Palestinian celebration of murdered Jews. This year I chose to be a tree deep in the forest. I would not listen to political pronouncements made by preening fools who earn far too much and understand far too little.

But … nothing could prevent ‘No Other Land’ winning the Oscar for best documentary feature film. After-all it was a perfect fit for the luvvies sport du jour. How better could a crowd of the nipped, tucked and starved, beam out their virtue signal of 2025? Tadaaaaa! Step forward a one sided commentary on Palestinian suffering, a gift from the gods.

So let’s examine the filming of a controversial West Bank community called Masafer Yalla. The Palestinians claim it’s built on the same site as 20 ‘ancient’ Palestinian villages. The Israeli court ruled in 2022 that this story is a myth. That, all the structures now existing have been built since the 1980s in a land grab that has no right in law. The film makers claim people have lived for decades on the land. The courts found this proven untrue by official maps drawn up by the British Palestine Exploration Fund. The only four traces of habitation shown are noted by the British as a ruined well, the remains of a cistern, a cave and the tracings of a wall. Between 1881 and 1980 there were no recognisable villages, a few Bedouin shepherds and their flocks yes, but no permanent inhabitants. For over 100 years the land appeared as described by its name … Masafer … meaning nothing. Imagine if here in the UK, a large group of activists made their way to Highgate Woods. They decide it’s a good place to live, they become squatters and start to build themselves a town. When they’re asked to stop construction work and leave the area, they go to court, they write newspaper articles, cry foul and put a film crew together. Aside from Jeremy Corbyn, would the local council or our government, be happy to support this cause? I think not. And to those saying, what about religious Jewish settlers who also build small illegal settlements on the West Bank … I tend to agree that it should stop.

This documentary ‘No Other Land,’ stole its title from an Israeli poem written by Ehud Manor after his brother died during war with Egypt. It seems that nothing remains sacred, and the reward for writing your own truth is sure to be loud applause and a coveted gold statue. Welcome to Hollywood.

‘I have no other land.

Even if my land is burning,

Only a word in Hebrew

Pierces my veins, my soul,

In a body that aches, in a heart that is hungry,

Here is my home …’

As for the idiocy of decorating lapels with a red hand pin, I quote Mark Seager, a British photographer who witnessed some of the murder and lynching of two Israeli reservists who after taking a wrong turn in Ramallah, committed the crime of asking for help. The violent Palestinian mob holding up blood soaked hands in celebration of their dreadful deed, were caught on camera, and this is what the red pin honours.

“I got out of the car to see what was happening and saw that they were dragging something behind them. Within moments they were in front of me and, to my horror, I saw that it was a body, a man they were dragging by the feet. The lower part of his body was on fire and the upper part had been shot at, and the head beaten so badly that it was a pulp, like red jelly.”

“My God, I thought, they've killed this guy. He was dead, he must have been dead, but they were still beating him, madly, kicking his head. They were like animals.”

Seager goes on to say that he had thought the Palestinians “kind, hospitable people” but realising otherwise as they turned on him, grabbing and smashing his camera, he “ran and ran” understanding that he was next.

Best Actor winner Adrien Brody was right, acting is a fragile thing. All the more so when performed by the 14 year old Palestinian son of a Hamas official, who duped Channel 4 and the BBC into airing terrorist propaganda. Films such as these are driving antisemitism and their message is always one of hatred. No room made for debate, context, or balance.

Brody made a chest slapping, five minute acceptance speech during which the enormous diamond and emerald bird brooch adorning his jacket failed to soar as high as his chewing gum. What should have been a powerful and impassioned rebuttal of antisemitism was a damp squib of lost opportunity. Brody is the son of a Jew, who has won two Oscars, both of them for playing persecuted Jews. For a man intent on thanking everyone who had ever crossed his path, it felt a reluctant and vague reference that he made to antisemitism. Rather than own it, he buried the oldest hate amongst banal words of inclusivity.

Oh to be a tree in my imaginary forest.