Where the documentary itself provided little hope, the filled room stepped up to the plate.
No Other Land is a beautifully devastating, tragic, anger-inducing and dark documentary, set in Masafer Yatta, a village in the occupied West Bank in Palestine, which was shown at a screening in White Rock late last month.
It’s devastating to see the pain on Palestinians’ faces as their homes are demolished.
It’s tragic to watch as Israeli soldiers use excessive force including shooting individuals, such as Harun Abu Aram, who was paralyzed by the army from below the shoulders.
It’s anger-inducing to witness a family be torn apart as a father is taken to military jail again, still having committed no crime.
And it’s dark to be left off on the note of Oct. 7, 2023, knowing that the dire situation in Palestine has only worsened since.
Under Israeli military occupation since 1967, the West Bank is under an apartheid regime, as evidenced by several human rights organizations, including Amnesty International in a 2022 report.
And that is exactly what No Other Land shows, as the right of movement is heavily restrained, but only for the Palestinian population.
Held by South Rock Social Justice with several organizations present, including Independent Jewish Voices, SurDelRock4Palestine (Surrey, Delta and White Rock) and Global Peace Alliance on the night of April 25, the night was a bigger step forward than it may seem.
The Oscar-winning documentary was initially released in 2024 but has not been picked up by an American distributor, making it unavailable to watch for many.
This raises the question: What are they trying to prevent us from seeing and why?
To watch the documentary as North Americans is to reckon with the fact that the powerful U.S. and Canada are allowing these war crimes to continue.
The documentary follows Basel Adra, a Palestinian activist who grew up in Masafer Yatta and has been documenting Israel’s mass expulsion of Palestinians in the village for more than a decade. With his camera in hand, Basel films military violence, the demolition of homes and families emotionally reeling after being displaced and forced to live in caves.
He is later joined by Israeli journalist and co-director of the film, Yuval Abraham, who has sympathy for Palestinians and helps to expose the truth of Israel’s war crimes to one day prevent the crimes from being committed in his name, as he says.
As soldiers ram down homes of families who have lived on the land for hundreds of years, they respond with building, then rebuilding again and again.
The silence was palpable as the packed room, which had more people than seating, watched innocent families sleep in caves because their homes were destroyed, and children eat cold, dry bread for dinner because they were left without electricity.
Pockets of beauty and humour are also present in No Other Land, as directors Basel and Yuval have many discussions about their contrasting lives in the same region.
Basel began documenting his and his community’s life in the West Bank when he was 15 years old, often using his camera strategically as both a weapon but also protection.
When he sees his people being treated aggressively by Israeli soldiers— or when he is himself the victim of such acts — he films and warns them that he is filming their actions, likely hoping they’ll stop. Over the more than 10 years of documentation, Basel becomes a target for the Israeli state to imprison as we watch his family attempting to protect him from wrongful persecution. At one point, we see Basel’s father taken to prison although he committed no crime, possibly as retaliation for his son’s activism. This is commonplace for Palestinians and also Basel’s father who has been jailed numerous times.
This shows that Basel’s filming and use of his camera does not have the intended impact. He films Harun being shot by the army, he films his father’s wrongful imprisonment, he films homes being demolished, families sleeping in caves, a school being destroyed, a man being shot by a settler and so much more over the years and yet, these crimes continue to this day.
Wrongful imprisonment of Palestinians is not only seen in their own territories, however. The film also brings up for me the current situation in the United States of Palestinian activists being detained by ICE agents, with many suing the government as they are detained far away from their homes.
This stark reminder is also presented by Harun’s mother, reeling from the shooting of her son by a soldier. This crime resulted in protests from the Masafer Yatta community who documented their chants and plea the only way they could, through social media.
As she speaks with international journalists about Harun, the mother and others confront us with the fact that despite numerous journalists visiting, media coverage and advocacy, the situation in Palestine continues to be dire for them.
We see this happen repeatedly, for every home destroyed and every family displaced. Still, the Palestinians fight back as much as they can but are always met with the same response — aggression from the military if they don’t stop resisting.
Yuval is asked several times by Basel if he is going home, the undertone of accusation always there as Yuval has the luxury to leave. He can have a passport to travel. He has a yellow licence plate, not the green one reserved for Palestinians, checkpoints are easy to proceed through for him, and his home is not threatened by illegal settlements. Yuval can leave at any point he pleases, and he does at one point in the documentary – the disparity very obvious between him as an Israeli and the Palestinians he surrounds who have no other land.
He is free, but Basel is not.
Displaced Palestinians who end up in other countries are also not allowed to return to Palestine, per Israeli law. Those forcibly displaced in 1948 who became refugees during the Nakba (catastrophe) have never been allowed to return home.
A connection to the land is undeniable as we see the same care taken towards the animals of Masafer Yatta as we do the humans injured or killed, like when a pigeon is trapped under a home demolished by the IDF. The beauty of community shines through, although that light is a little dim where we are left off.
Harun’s death is announced at the end of the documentary, leaving behind his mother and young sister. A glimpse of the aftermath of Oct. 7 is shown as we see settlers attack Palestinians in the West Bank, flanked with guns and by soldiers. We see the cold shooting of Basel’s cousin and are left with the discomforting and enraging thought of how could our world let this continue.
Just weeks after the directors of No Other Land accepted their Oscar, one co-director, Hamdan Ballal, was attacked by a group of settlers, sustaining injuries to his head and stomach, according to Yuval. Hamdan was taken in an ambulance, which was then invaded by the IDF, and he was taken to a prison, which he was later released from with many visible injuries.
Unlike most documentaries, this one does not end on a note of hope or change because that has yet to come. The demolitions, forced evictions and aggression continues to impact those in Masafer Yatta. Filmed between 2019 and 2023, the crimes had a long history before then and they continue to take place today.
My hope is for everyone to watch this documentary, especially those who hold prejudice against Palestinians. To learn is to be human, to admit wrongdoing takes strength, and to change your stance based on new information presented is growth.
I think this is what most in that White Rock room did on that night.
Regardless of faith, race, age or politics, everyone there bore witness to the lives of Palestinians in the West Bank, and I hope we are all changed for the better for it.
