In one of the most shattering moments in the Oscar-winning No Other Land, Yuval tells his friend Basel, I’m going home.
Yuval is an Israeli citizen. He can return to his house expecting it to be in one piece, standing where he left it – something that is unthinkable for Basel, a Palestinian living in the occupied West Bank.
No Other Land is a breathtakingly powerful chronicle of what it means to live with the constant threat of eviction. The film captures with heartrending detail the relentlessness of Israel’s effort to remove any trace of Palestinian presence in the West Bank.
The documentary was made over several years by four Palestinian and Israel activists – Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Hamdan Ballal and Rachel Szor – in Basel’s village in the West Bank’s Masafer Yatta enclave. Distinctive for caves that are used as homes, Masafer Yatta was recently declared a military training ground.
Changes in Israel’s laws have denied Palestinians the right to remain on land they have inhabited for generations. Bulldozers accompanied by soldiers and supported by Israeli settlers indiscriminately target homes, schools and even chicken coops – anything that could give Masafer Yatta’s people a sense of belonging.
Israel’s war on Palestine following the 2023 Hamas-led terror attacks has turbo-charged restrictive policies that have been place for decades, the film shows. Licence plates for cars have separate stickers – yellow for Israelis and green for Palestinians. People from the West Bank need permits to leave their designated zone.
“An entire world build on division. Green man. Yellow man,” Basel remarks.
The homes in Masafer Yatta have been painstakingly built and repeatedly rebuilt over the years. Early on in No Other Land, Basel says that his earliest childhood memories are of protests. The son of activist parents, a life of resistance is all Basel has ever known.
The documentary uses the friendship between Basel and Yuval as a framing device. The relationship is freighted with intense emotions. Basel is anxious over the fate of his family and village to the point of exhaustion. Yuval expresses guilt and sorrow over being unable to prevent imminent destruction or persuade other Israelis to see reason.
There is grim irony when Basel says that he has a law degree, but can only find work as a construction labourer in Israel. The manner in which the judiciary can be used to redesignate land use and thus enable unfeeling eviction policies points to a familiar playbook predicated on absolute denial of basic human rights.
At the Oscars that were held on Sunday, No Other Land was nominated alongside four other titles in the Documentary Feature Film category. No Other Land is closest in theme to Porcelain War, about the use of art to resist Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Another candidate reveals the roots of the global indifference to the Palestine cause. Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat traces how Western powers colluded in the assassination of Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba.
In No Other Land, Basel says that the Palestinians need “sabr”, patience to continue their resistance, but his resolve weakens ever so often. At the Oscars , Basel was visibly moved.
In his acceptance speech, he said. “About two months ago, I became a father, and my hope to my daughter [is] that she will not have to live the same life I’m living now – always fearing settlers’ violence, home demolitions and forceful displacements that my community, Masafer Yatta, is living and facing every day under the Israeli occupation.”
Yuval Abraham said, “When I look at Basel, I see my brother, but we are unequal. We live in a regime where I am free under civilian law, and Basel is under military laws that destroy his life, and he cannot control.”
Israelis and Palestinians are “intertwined”, Abraham said, adding “…my people can be truly safe if Basel’s people are truly free and safe.”
No Other Land shared a less obvious connection with another Oscar-nominated fiction feature. Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist follows Hungarian architect and Holocaust survivor Laszlo Toth’s perilous journey to America. Laszlo struggles to fit in with American values, but rejects his niece Zsofia’s suggestion that the family move to the newly founded country of Israel to escape anti-Semitism.
Laszlo eventually gives in. The Brutalist ends with a direct-to-camera statement by Zsofia: “No matter what the others try and sell you, it is the destination, not the journey.”
What was that destination? The answer lies in No Other Land, which gets its title from a statement by a long-time Masafer Yatta resident: “We have no other land. It is our land. That is why we suffer for it.”
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