Idealism Ain’t Dead

No Other Land winning the documentary Oscar is great good news in these unpleasant times. Tenacious Palestinians and Israelis jointly made the film, which documents the destruction by the Israeli military of the Palestinian town of Masafer Yatta, situated only a few miles south of Hebron, a city I was fortunately able to visit fifteen years ago. One of occupied Palestine’s largest cities, Hebron is after all linked to Abraham, a father figure to all the world’s Christians, Muslims and Jews. Though a Hindu, I was moved when I found myself there. 

If Israel’s extremists continue to have their way, Hebron’s Arabs too will be forced out the way Masafer Yatta’s Arabs were. Masafer Yatta was the hometown of Basel Adra, the Palestinian who filmed No Other Land. Despite No Other Land’s popularity, distributors in the United States refused to pick up the film. Even online streaming platforms in the US showed little interest. Whether Republican or Democrat, whether they are in business, the media, or elsewhere, the prudent of the US take great care not to offend Netanyahu. 

FINALLY, A TONIC

Dismissing prudence and fears, Oscar’s voters picked No Other Land, a decision that has lifted hearts everywhere. Oscar’s award goes way beyond recognizing the joint achievement of the makers of No Other Land: Basel Adra, who is an Arab, and the Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham, who co-directed it along with Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal and Israeli filmmaker Rachel Szor. The award is a tonic for our world’s continually disappointed lovers of fairness, decency, and friendship. A film honestly documenting painful ruthlessness, a film made jointly by supposed adversaries, now bears an Oscar stamp! 

Powerful nations may continue to finance and arm ethnic cleansing, but a documentary that shows the searing reality now possesses a launching pad of unrivalled prestige from where it will convey the facts to millions across the world. Lovers of truth, justice, and reconciliation have been given a not-so-frequent moment to celebrate. Marvelous. 

It’s not the sole headline, of course. Usually announced via television, President Trump’s rapid-fire decisions and policies continue to startle, even after we’ve become trained to expect shocks. Did we really expect the US-Europe understanding that had supplied a sort of equilibrium to our world ever since World War I, i.e. for more than a hundred years, to be brought to an end so abruptly?

STATE OF RUPTURE? 

Thus far firmly and unitedly committed (so we were told) to the defense and territorial integrity of Ukraine, the US and Europe (including the UK) suddenly seemed to be in a state of rupture with each other. Until the other day, Zelensky was a hero, a 21st-century reincarnation, so we were told, of Winston Churchill. Wasn’t he defying, in the 2020s, a Russian with a voracious appetite for land in the manner in which, in the 1940s, Churchill had defied a German with a similar hunger named Hitler? 

On February 28, however, following a televised encounter in the White House, Zelensky became an ill-mannered, ungrateful, poorly attired obstacle to America’s return to undisturbed prosperity, and an obstacle also to America’s advance toward an advantageous friendship with the above-mentioned Russian, Vladimir Putin. 

It’s of course not as simple as that, we are told. While it may not be very gallant, it is conceded, to abandon Zelensky and Ukraine, wouldn’t it be simply brilliant if Trump manages, by appeasing Putin, to isolate and weaken America’s real rival, China? Even if that outcome is hard to guarantee, for it assumes a stupidity in Putin and Xi for which there is insufficient evidence, is it not in the US’s great interest to get hold of the rare earths of Ukraine, worth trillions we are told, which a Ukraine in distress would convey on pleasant terms to the US? 

CAPITULATION? 

As for the major nations on the Atlantic’s other side, in particular, the UK, France and Germany, the picture that comes across is of an effort to restore Zelensky’s relationship with Trump and to assure the US that European nations will pay more than before for their security and also for the costs of Ukraine’s defense. Zelensky latest words (of March 4), evidently the result of persuasion or pressure from, among others, UK’s Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, are tantamount to an apology and submission to Trump. Here is what Zelensky said about the White House “clash” that had gripped the world’s attention -- and about the minerals sought by Trump: 

“I would like to reiterate Ukraine’s commitment to peace. 

“None of us wants an endless war. Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer. Nobody wants peace more than Ukrainians. My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump’s strong leadership to get a peace that lasts. 

“We are ready to work fast to end the war, and the first stages could be the release of prisoners and truce in the sky — ban on missiles, long-ranged drones, bombs on energy and other civilian infrastructure — and truce in the sea immediately, if Russia will do the same. Then we want to move very fast through all next stages and to work with the US to agree a strong final deal. 

“We do really value how much America has done to help Ukraine maintain its sovereignty and independence. And we remember the moment when things changed when President Trump provided Ukraine with Javelins. We are grateful for this. 

“Our meeting in Washington, at the White House on Friday, did not go the way it was supposed to be. It is regrettable that it happened this way. It is time to make things right. We would like future cooperation and communication to be constructive. 

“Regarding the agreement on minerals and security, Ukraine is ready to sign it in any time and in any convenient format. We see this agreement as a step toward greater security and solid security guarantees, and I truly hope it will work effectively.” 

Before Zelensky’s apparent capitulation, this is what Andrey Kurkov, a Ukrainian novelist, had written in the UK’s Guardian newspaper: 

“Trump has had his way. He has transformed Ukraine from a subject into an object, and after this White House humiliation some Ukrainians are convinced that the extraction of rare earth metals on Trump’s terms would turn our country into a ‘colony’ of the US. Still, many Ukrainians would prefer to live in a US colony than in a Russian one, if that’s the choice.” 

AVOIDING PLAIN HONESTY 

We can easily mark that the world’s power centers treat idealism, or even plain honesty, with contempt. If the heads of our world’s governments were to meet now, they would certainly not adopt anything like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was signed in Paris in 1948. Today a president like Trump will not say that Putin started the war against Ukraine in 2022, or that the Palestinians are the targets and victims of Israel’s drive to create an ethnically pure Greater Israel. 

I return with gladness therefore to the Oscar prize for No Other Land. It shows that idealism is not dead in our world. We know, moreover, that all our countries possess filmmakers, and other journalists, artists, musicians, and communicators, who through YouTube and other independent platforms are skillfully and bravely fighting the good fight: the fight for democracy, for the right to speak freely, and for mutual respect and mutual acceptance, which is a fight also against greed and against the urge to oppress others.