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The documentary contrasts the hardships that Basal Adra faces as a Palestinian with Yuval Abraham’s “freedom and security” as an Israeli, conveniently ignoring that Israelis have been subjected to relentless terror campaigns for decades.
By: Ari Ingel
“No Other Land” won the Oscar for Best Documentary.
But does it present an accurate picture of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?
Not quite.
“No Other Land” is a 2024 Palestinian documentary co-directed by a group of Israeli and Palestinian activists.
The widely acclaimed film deals with the evictions of Palestinians from the area of Masafer Yatta in the West Bank, interweaving the stories of Palestinian activist Basal Adra and his friend Yuval Abraham, an Israeli journalist.
Though Palestinians claim to have lived in Masafer Yatta “for centuries” – or even longer – the historical facts on the ground are much different.
Neither Ottoman nor British documents show any permanent Palestinian-Arab communities in Masafer Yatta.
Likewise, aerial photos from the 1980s don’t show any permanent Palestinian structures.
In fact, Masafer Yatta has been designated a military zone since 1981.
As part of Area C of the West Bank, Israel has the right to exercise full military and civil control of Masafer Yatta, as agreed upon by the Israelis and Palestinians during the Oslo Accords in the 1990s.
After a lengthy court case, in a unanimous decision from Israel’s Supreme Court, it found dating back to the 1980’s that there was neither evidence of any freestanding structures that would indicate a permanent Palestinian presence there, nor any “permanent dwellings” in the region.
The court also noted that the Palestinian petitioners rejected any attempted compromise offered to them.
One rarely discussed issue is that just as the settler movement has been trying to create facts on the ground in Area C of the West Bank, the Palestinians too, with the help of Europeans, have been also trying to create facts on the ground by building illegally, for many decades now.
“No Other Land” also completely decontextualizes the actions that Israel carries out in the West Bank.
For example, it does not address the Israeli security concerns that led Israel to designate Masafer Yatta a military zone.
Because Masafer Yatta is used for firing exercises, illegally built Palestinian structures – which, again, were built after the area was designated a military zone – pose a risk to the lives of civilians.
“No Other Land” also presents the Palestinian residents of Masafer Yatta, and the West Bank in general, as victims of Israeli aggression.
And while it’s true that many Palestinians have been victimized during the conflict, the film ignores the many, many times that Palestinians have carried out actions that have heightened tensions in the conflict: namely, Palestinian terrorism that informs virtually all Israeli policies in the West Bank.
In fact, some of the most recent deadly attacks against Israelis have come from the nearby city of Yatta, including the Sarona Market massacre (2016), where two terrorists from Yatta walked into a busy Tel Aviv market and opened fire, murdering four civilians and wounding at least seven; the murder of Dafna Meir (2016) where a terrorist from Yatta stabbed Dafna Meir to death in front of her children outside her home in Otniel; the Yavneh stabbing attack (2018), where a terrorist from Yatta entered a supermarket, grabbed an Israeli civilian, and stabbed him repeatedly in the neck and chest, leaving him critically wounded, and the Gush Etzion stabbing (2018) where a terrorist from Yatta stabbed and killed Ari Fuld, a well-known Israeli activist.
The documentary contrasts the hardships that Basal Adra faces as a Palestinian with Yuval Abraham’s “freedom and security” as an Israeli, conveniently ignoring that Israelis have been subjected to relentless terror campaigns for decades.
In 2024 alone, Israeli security forces – the same security forces that the documentary demonizes – thwarted over 1,000 terrorist attacks in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, including bombings, shootings, stabbings, car rammings, suicide bombings, attempted kidnappings, and more.
While highlighting the plight of Palestinians in the West Bank is important, it’s equally important not to present a one-sided, inaccurate narrative of the situation, which not only demonizes Israelis by not explaining the reasoning behind Israel’s policies in the West Bank but also fosters divisions and undermines dialogue and peace efforts.
Furthermore, from the stage, Israeli filmmaker Yuval Abraham stated: “Can’t you see that we are intertwined? That my people can be truly safe if Basel’s people are truly free and safe? There is another way. It’s not too late for life, for the living.”
In an ideal world, the above statement would hold true.
However, Palestinian leadership and so-called civil society organizations have repeatedly demonstrated that they have no real interest in lasting peace or a two-state solution.
Israel’s security measures were implemented in direct response to terrorism and the continued Palestinian struggle to establish a state of Palestine in the entirety of the land between the river and the sea, instead of agreeing to live in pace and accepting a state of Palestine in just part of the land, as the Jews themselves have done.
If Hollywood wants to understand the true security issues Israel faces, perhaps they should watch the Palestinian documentary filmed on October 7, where Hamas and other Palestinian militants broadcast to the world hundreds of hours in which they documented themselves murdering entire families, kidnapping Holocaust survivors and infants, and committing unimaginable horrors, including rape.
The horrors of October 7, 2023 exposed the devastating consequences of Israeli security failures.
In this new reality, empty platitudes, not to mention empty films, no longer suffice.