The director, nominated for Oscar West Bryag, says the films “can be part of the change”

Palestinian and Israeli sit in the village of West Bryag at night.

They wonder aloud whether Basel will ever be able to freely visit Juvel’s home in Israel, whether the village of Basel will receive building permits and whether they will have stability one day.

For years, friends have been filming the destruction of houses, well and school by the Israeli army after the court order declared Basel’s community illegal. They say each other that they hope they will change this reality.

Now this scene has reached some of the largest stages in the world.

The movie, which is, has no other land, has been nominated for Oscar and BAFTA for the best documentary function.

Following is the fight for Masafer Yata, a community of about 20 villages, and the friendship between Basel Adra and Israeli journalist Jual Abraham.

In the movie Basel was almost detained after a protest, his father was arrested, and a soldier shot a member of the community in the neck while confiscating a generator leading to paralysis and death of the man.

“It’s scary because yes, the movie is successful and people are aware of it, but I don’t think there are enough action, especially among those who have the power to change this,” Juvel told the BBC.

“I have no illusion that movies will change the world, but I know they can change individuals. I know they can be part of a bigger change and we really need it now.”

Basel and Yuvel created the film with Hamdan Balal and Rachel Shore for five years.

Asked about the man who was paralyzed, the IDF said his investigation had not found a crime. A spokesman said that during an operation against “illegal construction”, two Palestinians grabbed a soldier to their weapons and vest, leading to a shot.

Palestinian eyewitnesses told the Israeli media They did not connect as part of the initial investigation and believed that the shot was fired intentionally.

Israel has occupied the Western coast since 1967. The Israeli settlements on the territory are considered illegal according to international law, although Israel disputes this. They have expanded over the last 55 years, becoming a focal point of violence and contradictory claims to land.

On October 7, 2023, Hamas attacked Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. This caused an Israeli military campaign that died at least 47,500 people in Gaza, according to Hamas Health Ministry.

Since then, Violence associated with settlers On the west coast it has increased, with 13 Palestinians killed by settlers, according to the UN.

More than 850 Palestinians, many fighters, were killed by Israeli troops on the west coast for the same period, says the Palestinian Health Ministry. The UN says 30 Israelis were killed by Palestinians on the west coast during this period of time.

In 2024, the Un recorded About 1420 incidents of Israeli violence of settlers – the largest number, which, according to reports, led to victims, damage to property, or both, as the records began in 2006.

Additional attacks on Palestinians happened after the return of US President Donald Trump to power, said Basel and the movie makers fear that this could be worse.

Trump has canceled the sanctions that the Biden administration has put on some settlers. Israeli President’s ambassador Mike Hukabi, has said Israel has a “title case” on the west coast and “there is no such thing” as occupation or settlements.

When asked on Tuesday, he agreed that the United States should recognize Israeli sovereignty over the occupied West Coast, Trump said He has not already taken a position, but he will make a message in four weeks.

The Masafer Yeta debate began in the 1980s, when Israel declared the area a closed war zone for firing, which means that no one was allowed to live there.

According to Notes from a 1981 Meeting MeetingAt that time, the Israeli Minister of Agriculture, Ariel Sharon, offered the military additional training areas to limit the “expansion of Arab peasants from the hills to the desert.”

Israel claims that residents do not live there before. The Palestinian population brought their case to the Supreme Court of Israel, argument that communities have been living there for generations and pointing a card from 1945 showing some villages.

In 2022, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Israel and allowed the demolition of homes and expulsion of more than 1,000 peasants.

Scenes from the movie show a bulldozer that destroys a primary school, a truck that pours mud into a well, and machines that crush the home while the peasants collide with the army.

A girl cries and when her mother is asked if there is another place to go, she says, “We have no other land.”

The documentary also records intimate human moments, such as when a mother who moves to a cave kisses her daughter and tells her, “You are my love … tomorrow will be a new day.”

The film also explores the friendship of Basel and Juvel. Although they are of the same age and share such values, their inequality is always present.

While Jual can travel freely in Israel and the west coast, Basel cannot travel to Israel without permission, as part of what it writes are security measures.

In the movie, Basel complains that although he studied law, he can find a job in Israel’s construction and when he thinks about it too difficult, “I feel this huge depression.”

The movie does not deviate from the tension created by Juvel’s identity, as a Palestinian asks him: “How can we stay friends when you come here and may be your brother or friend who destroy my home?”

Juvel told the BBC that he felt “responsible for what was happening with the Basel community” because “at the end of the day, fuel in bulldozers is my tax money.”

Last year, Juvel faced his speech to accept the best documentary award at the Berlin Film Festival, along with Basel, in which he criticized the “Apartheid Situation” and called for the cessation of fire in Gaza.

American director Ben Russell, who was there and wore a Palestinian scarf, said he was standing against the Genocide in Gaza. Israel strongly denies the accusation of genocide.

German Minister of Culture Claudia Roth They said the statements were “shockingly one -sided and characterized by deep hatred of Israel” while Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner Posted in social media that this is an “intolerable relativation” and that “anti -Semitism has no place in Berlin.”

Israeli public operator Called comments by Juvel Anti -SemiteS

Juvel, who said he had received threats of death, told the BBC that he was “very angry” on the label that “empties this semantic term at a time when anti -Semitism rises to the right wing and on the left wing.”

He said it was “absurd” to hear criticism when the greater part of his family was killed in the Holocaust, adding that learning from this story “must tell us to fight against dehumanization … no matter who the victim is “.

Although she won several international awards, no other land is allocated in the United States, as she has not found an official distributor-rire for a documentary that has been nominated for an Oscar.

One of the last scenes of the movie is on October 13, 2023 when Basel recorded a settler, filming his cousin, whose hands look empty in the stomach. In other footage, the settlers throw rocks at their homes as the soldiers look.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said the shooting case was transferred to the State Prosecutor’s Office, which the BBC addressed for comment.

Currently at Masafer Yatta., Basel said the settlers have “Unlimited force” and has “Daily Bullying Level”.

He said that in January there were three main attacks by settlers, including a 72-year-old hospital after he was hit in the head with sticks, and about 15 people were arrested in the two days before January 30 while sheep grazed its or chasing the sheep of the settlers. Israeli police did not respond to a BBC request for comment.

The United Kingdom sanctioned three settlers and four organizations that are said to support the violence against the West coast communities. Yuval urged the United Kingdom to sanction all settlers, believing that “this” would really be a deterrent. “

A Foreign Affairs spokesman said the BBC that the Foreign Secretary “was clearly with the Israeli ministers that they should adhere to the violence of settlers and expanding the final settlement.”

“We regularly take action against the violence of settlers, including target sanctions, and will continue to do our best to ensure that the rights of the Palestinians are protected and that they are responsible for violence,” the announcement said.

Juval said: “I really believe that there is no other way forward but to reach a just, just political decision where Palestinians can be free, really free of our people, both of them, will have security and self -determination.

“It really annoys me, not only that my government goes the other way, but also that the world allows it to happen so long.”

In the movie, Basel recalls a seven-minute visit from Tony Blair to his village-after which Israel canceled the orders of demolition there.

“This is a story of power,” he says.

Now Basel receives “strength and power from the people around me”, making him want not to give up.

“A drop of water doesn’t change,” he says during a protest in the movie, “But keep letting out the water and this will make a change.”