To the editor:

Last Sunday, P.S. Letters for Ceasefire hosted a viewing of “No Other Land” at the Saranac Lake Library. This documentary offers a heart-wrenching depiction of the destruction of West Bank Palestinian communities by the Israeli military, and the story of an unlikely alliance of Palestinian and Israeli activists and journalists who unify to resist and document the crimes. Here, I’d like to offer some thoughts on the film, on its connection to current events, and on ways we can model our communities after the unity depicted in “No Other Land.”

First, I recommend that everyone watches “No Other Land.” The story is important right now as a model of solidarity in the face of injustices and a seemingly irreconcilable divide.

What injustices? Despite a “ceasefire,” genocide in Gaza continues and Israeli occupation in the West Bank is intensifying. The war in Ukraine continues through a brutal winter. Unauthorized military siphoning of oil from Venezuela threatens Latin American sovereignty. Climate change intensifies flooding and landslides, while industry leaders and politicians are exiting UN climate initiatives and focusing on profit through pipeline construction and unsustainable AI developments. Meanwhile, ICE is breaking up families and detaining our migrant neighbors — many of whom moved due to political, economic and climate turmoil exacerbated by U.S. policies. Even in the North Country, people I know personally fear that they may be next. With all this, it is easy to feel helpless and watch as the power to shape our societies is taken from us.

What divide? We hear our friends say the other side is insane — how it’s not worth engaging that neighbor with a cat and a political bias. The news outlets and social media algorithms make it worse by pushing polarizing issues. Universal stories of unaffordability, insurance denials and mental health struggles are not as exciting to air. But the culture war content keeps us clicking. Then, when we are good and polarized, the stories about suffering seem less about human dignity and more about politics. As a result, many of us don’t see that our nation’s power is being leveraged for genocide abroad, ethnic cleansing at home and more violence for the benefit of empire.

Solidarity how? “No Other Land” demonstrates a powerful model of what it can look like when individuals from different backgrounds set aside those differences and unify. We must do this too. The powers that be don’t care about any of us, so we must care about each other. Let’s cook food for each other. Let’s engage with community groups like John Brown Lives!, Adirondack Voters for Change or the People’s Chorus. Let’s invite our neighbors to support the New York for All Act.

And let’s show our solidarity with Palestine. We can:

¯ Boycott companies complicit in occupation and genocide, like TEVA pharmaceuticals.

¯ Divest from companies that benefit from war crimes, like Lockheed and RTX.

¯ Contact elected officials to demand an end to U.S. military support for genocide and occupation.

And keep talking with each other about human dignity.

Forrest Law

Saranac Lake