Dimensionally Barrett

“No Other Land” director Hamdan Ballal.   Photo by Hazem Bader/AFP via Getty Images The Jewish journal The Forward has a follow-up story on co-director of the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land Hamdan Ballal’s abduction. As the report points out, the only exceptional detail is that the abductee in question has an Academy Award. Otherwise, this is not unusual. That said, I want to share this article because it highlights the daily reality that Palestinians live with in the West Bank, particularly in areas like Masafer Yatta. It also highlights the work of Israeli volunteers who attempt to act as buffers to the violence brought by the settlers, the Israeli Defense Force, and the police. The volunteers come from all around the world to work with the  Center for Jewish Nonviolence. The risk is great since, as in the night when Ballal was arrested, Jewish settlers attacked Jewish volunteers. As I read this article, I couldn’t shake, and still cannot dismiss the sense of madne...

“We have no other land, that’s why we suffer for it.” - A Palestinian Woman in   No Other Land First, the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences deserves respect for choosing   No Other Land   for Best Documentary Feature. Second, the River Oaks Theater in Houston deserves a vote of thanks for bringing it to the public when it cannot seem to find a distributor in this country.  I need some more time to myself to sit with this and process this document. I really don’t feel like this is one of those films that gains in being analyzed as a film; it’s power is in its immediacy and what it shows us.  Let me be clear about something else; being against Israel’s policies of occupation, erasure, and let’s call it what it is, genocide, is not antisemitic. Yuval Abraham, one of the film’s co-directors, is Israeli ano of course, faced backlash for his support of the Palestinians. But the story is Basel Adra’s, if we’re looking for a central figure. Adra has ...

Originally, I wanted to write up a piece about the participatory aspect of democracy and how, if you want to see change around you, one very important way to be that change is to be involved. Voting, sure. Advocacy, sure. But also, to avail yourself of meeting your representatives on issues that matter to you. Emails are fine, but depending on your reps, mileage may vary according to how accessible they are; I’m lucky, my House Representative is very accessible and I was able to promote some legislation on Burma/Myanmar while I was in DC recently. That was something else I wanted to write about; updates on what’s transpiring in Burma and the attendant issues surrounding the military’s continued oppression.  However, like many around the world, I woke Sunday morning to horrible and horrifying news out of Israel. There will be more tragedy to come out from the region and I do not look forward to it. I am not, by any means, a fan of Netanyahu and his hard move toward further authorita...