Photograph Source: Michele Assante del Leccese — teacher, artist and Cultural Coordinator for the Island of Procida.

In April, we hosted a screening of the Academy Award-winning documentary film “No Other Land” on the island of Procida in the Gulf of Naples, Italy. It was well attended on a chilly Thursday evening at the island’s only cinema – Procida Hall — with a welcome from the Mayor, Dino Ambrosino, and longtime human rights crusader Luisa Morgantini. For several days this week and through the never ending commitment of Luisa Morgantini, former vice president of the European Union who has dedicated decades of her tireless 85 years to supporting efforts for Palestinian liberation, we hosted the film’s Palestinian director and main protagonist Basel Adra here on our island.

Basel is a wonderful and humble soul with a lifelong dedication to the liberation of his people as he was born, raised and lives under occupation. His film documents the constant brutality of Israel’s illegal occupation and colonization from his village of Massafer Yatta and surrounding areas of the West Bank. It tells this horrific story of state-sponsored illegality and terror through the daily military oppression and forced removal of people living in this area, on their ancestral lands, with constant situations and episodes of violent settler colonialism that all happened before October 7th of 2023.

Despite winning the Oscar award for best documentary film, “No Other Land” was not well distributed in the United States and most of the major streaming platforms have refused to make it widely available. The truth that this film demonstrates unmasks the brutal reality of what Israel is and does as a racist, ethno nationalist and supremacist apartheid state — truths that the power brokers of the western world do not want seen or known.

Basel has been travelling around Europe for a couple weeks to share his story and encourage our international movement to do all it can to stop the zionists from continuing to terrorize Palestinians and our world. He spoke to a large media event in the Italian city of Bologna to a crowd of several thosand and then to an informal gathering of activists and supporters on Procida, next in Naples and then Rome.

Michael with Basel Adra director of No Other Land. Photograph Source: Michael Leonardi.

I was asked by my friend, Palestinian American writer and activist Jeannie Amash, about Basel’s emotional state. Emotionally he seems very much like he appears in the film. He is emotionally wrought and frustrated as the world continues its tailspin into a zionist, overheated hellscape. Now, with Israel’s lurching us toward World War 3 and their ever-expanding aggression, Basel is particularly worried about how he will get home to his family and loved ones. Most of the region’s airports are shut down, all the border crossings sealed, all the checkpoints closed, and his wife and 6 month 6-month-old daughter, and the rest of his family, who were met through the film, are back home in their occupied and terrorized homeland.

On Tuesday evening he spoke to a beautiful crowd in Naples and was described as resilient, powerful, eloquent despite being noticeably tired and strained, and on Wednesday he spoke in Rome to a hall filled with students at Rome’s Sapienza University were he was described as dedicated and powerful, but noticeably distraught by the circumstances we are in. He will likely be on stage this Saturday for the national demonstration in Italy against funding military expansion and to Stop the Genocide in Gaza, and then he has a conference in Madrid. But after that he was supposed to return home and now this has become a big question mark as Israel has taken us to the brink of World War 3. How will he get home?

How is it that any of us are supposed to be emotionally in a world being destroyed by greedy war criminals, rampaging with complete impunity, that prioritize war and military spending above all else? How are any of us supposed to be emotionally after witnessing a live streamed genocide for the last two years? How are we supposed to be emotionally when despite all our efforts we still feel so powerless to effect meaningful change?

It was a real privilege for my daughter Val (Gaia) and I to accompany Basel on a boat tour around Procida while Luisa worked in the sweltering heat to write an article and meet with members of Parliament she was supposed to be accompanying on yet another trip to the West Bank and Rafah border crossing – a trip now in limbo after Israel’s attack on Iran. A few words about Luisa: She has dedicated her life to the liberation of the Palestinian people and to peace in the occupied land. If it wasn’t for her dedicated work there would not have been a demonstration for Gaza of over 300,000 people two weeks ago called by Italy’s three major opposition parties – The 5 Star Movement, The Green/Left alliance and the Democratic Party. Luisa has been tireless in her commitment to illuminate these politicians and the populace as a whole. She is the founder of the human rights organization Assopace Palestina and is a household name known by thousands of Palestinians living under occupation and, through the diaspora, around the world.

As Basel Adra repeatedly says, we must continue our commitment and struggle because, as evidenced by the growing support from people around the world, our efforts are making a difference. In recent polls in Italy, the majorty of Italians recognize what Israel is doing in Gaza as a genocide and over 75 % of Italians call on international intervention to stop the war criminal, Netanyahu, with more than just empty words.

As a result of a variety of initiatives on the little island of Procida there is a growing awareness and recognition of the genocide at hand, our mayor is flying the Palestinian flag from his office window at city hall, the historic Nautical highschool on the island is flying the Palestinian flag after a unamimous vote to do so by the teachers, and they are flying across the island and across all of Italy.

There are multiple events happening every single day across the country to raise awareness and participation in the Palestinian struggle and a permanent daily protest is happening in front of the Italian parliament calling for an end to all military partnerships with Israel. Unfortunately, despite the public outcry, the neo fascist Italian government continues to supply Israel with weapons. But despite the moral and political bankruptcy of most western leaders, it is really seeming more and more apparent that while Israel might have thought it could eliminate Palestine from the map, it didn’t realize that the entire world would become Palestine, and that millions around the world would join in unison to say that we are truly all Palestinians. #StopTheGenocide