‘We have no other land’. This is what a Palestinian woman said to Israel Defence Force (IDF) soldiers removing her from her village in Masafer Yatta in the West Bank. Documented over a four year period between 2019 and 2023, Academy Award winning documentary No Other Land follows Basel Adra as he films the destruction of Masafer Yatta and its eventual resettlement, hopeful that the film he produces will pressure the United States into forcing Israel to cancel the expulsion of the villages and its one thousand inhabitants. However, as the attack on one of No Other Land’s co-directors Hamdan Ballal on the 24th March proves, Basel’s intentions were never fulfilled.

The ‘lynching’, as Israeli journalist and fellow co-director Yuval Abraham called it, of Hamdan by Israeli settlers and soldiers was another manifestation of the oppression and violence inflicted on Palestinians which No Other Land chronicled. Writing on X (formerly Twitter), Yuval commented that a group of settlers beat him and soldiers arrested Hamdan from the ambulance called for him, taking him to a military base and holding him overnight, where the abuse continued. Hamdan was handcuffed, blindfolded, and denied medical treatment. He was released ‘on bail’ the following afternoon. In speaking to ITV News, Hamdan’s wife said that the ‘Oscar has become a curse’, with the attacks intensifying and Hamdan’s life under more serious threat. As seen in the videos posted by Yuval online, the balaclava’d settlers stormed Hamdan’s house, throwing stones at the security cameras installed and, after Hamdan’s abduction, continuing to attack those attempting to defend Hamdan and themselves.

It is clear why the threat of Israeli settlers has reached a dangerous apex since No Other Land’s Oscars win at the beginning of March. It does not make the settlers, the IDF, the police force, or the Israeli state look particularly good. Basel documents the bulldozers that reduce Palestinian homes to rubble. He records IDF soldiers manhandling an elderly gentleman trying to defend his dignity. The audience witness the shooting of a man named Harun, who was trying to claim back his electric generator from the Israeli soldiers. We watch his paralysis, deterioration, and learn of his subsequent death. Basel films a protest by the people of Masafer Yatta, including children and adolescents, and the use of stun grenades by the IDF on the demonstrators. He shows the soldiers crawling towards an elementary school and destroying it. I saw IDF soldiers fill in a well, because the Palestinians of Masafer Yatta had no permit for water. The use of psychological torture by the IDF is as clear as day, from the constant pointing of guns to the threats to come back for Basel and arrest him. The mere sight of the military’s jeeps driving through the villages’ streets filled me with dread. Interspersed within all of this are recordings from Basel’s childhood in the 1990s and 2000s, where the people of Masafer Yatta, led by Basel’s father, were already fighting for their land. It reveals how long-standing Israeli occupation is; Basel has spent his life defending his village from incursion. Most noticeably, it undermines the claim of settlers that the land is theirs; we witness the violent removal of the generations of Palestinians from their homes and the replacement of their houses with sparkling blocks of new mansions, ready for the arrival of the transplanted Israelis, and a military training ground, to prevent the spread of Palestinian villagers.

What was most striking, and I believe one of the reasons for No Other Land’s win at the Academy Awards, was the relationship between Yuval and not only Basel, but the population of Masafer Yatta. Yuval followed Basel’s filming, a journalist writing about the expulsions of Palestinians from their villages, furious that it was taking place supposedly for his sake and hoping for a two-state solution to bring democracy, stability, and peace. His naive idealism and assurance that a sovereign Palestinian state would end all Israeli oppression, for example the confiscation of Palestinian cars and restriction of their movement, is countered by the deflation and frustration etched into Basel’s face and the mistrust of the other residents of the villages, who say to him, “how can we remain friends when it could be your brother or friend that destroyed our home?”. The friendship that grew between Basel, his family and Yuval, their meals eaten together, drives taken together, and jokes shared about running away together were always undercut by mistrust, suspicion, and an inherent difference created and fuelled by the Israeli state’s oppression of Palestine. It has been nurtured to an extent that their “entire world has been built on division”. The IDF and Israeli settlers challenged Yuval’s activism and asked him, “why do you care?” and mocked him, “here is a Jew helping them”.

But there was always room for joy throughout the demolition of Masafer Yatta. Basel captured the determination of his sisters to continue going to school, his family’s delight in their two-year-old grandson, the laughter of the villages’ children as they played in the streets, and the comfort of a meal with his family on a dark evening. However, Basel’s project was a cry for help. His narration switched between English and Arabic, the slogans on the protest placards he caught on camera were written in English. Basel kept a record of the demolition to show who lived there first so his villages and neighbours would not be forgotten. While the world turns a blind eye to Israel’s occupation, terrorism, and war crimes, it is our duty to remember the Palestinians who have been living between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea for centuries.

Words by Rosie Nowosielski

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