Israel’s occupation of the West Bank arguably constitutes a siege that’s been tightening in increments since 1967. One of these increments by which Israel has extended its claim to the land is the area known as Masafer Yatta, a cluster of 19 Palestinian villages that the Israeli government declared a military training zone in 1981 with the express aim (articulated by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon) of facilitating the expulsion of its Palestinian residents.
Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Hamdan Ballal, and Rachel Szor’s documentary No Other Land embeds the viewer within the dry hills and craggy caves of Masafer Yatta, in the wake of a court decision rejecting its denizens’ decades-long suit against the illegal Israeli seizure of their land and destruction of their homes. Basel, an activist with a camera and a law degree who’s lived in the area his whole life, serves as narrator and focal point, as he grew up in the region and now seeks to publicize his community’s resistance to Israeli encroachment on their land.
Haunted by arbitrary raids and the sight of bulldozers on the horizon, the people of Masafer Yatta eke out a living by growing crops, herding sheep, or, in the case of Basel’s father, running a single-pump gas station that serves both the Palestinians who must stick to the West Bank and the Israelis who’re free to go where they please. The camera shakes and rattles as it follows Basel to the sites where his neighbors look on in aguish as their modest houses are demolished, the perimeter guarded by grimacing soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces.
In the summer of 2019, according to one of No Other Land’s title cards, an unarmed tug-of-war over a family’s gas-powered generator ends in one of Basel’s neighbors, Harun Abu Aram, being shot by Israeli soldiers—paralyzing him, as we later learn, from the neck down. Now lacking a house (the incident didn’t keep Israeli forces from bulldozing the home), Harun returns from the hospital to find his family living in a cave. For the rest of the film, we’re periodically reminded of the devastating ramifications of this land seizure, as we catch distanced glimpses of Harun under a blanket on the sandy, rocky floor of his family’s new home.
What becomes most evident as we see homes, schools, and playgrounds fall to heavy machinery cordoned off by armed guards is the patience of the Palestinians at No Other Land’s center. Instead of meeting destruction in kind, Basel and his friends argue with the troops and organize marches on the desolate road that runs through the territory.
Tireless demonstration against one of the strongest militaries in the world seems to now be local tradition: Basel reflects over archival footage of his parents resisting the encroachment of the IDF on gradually realizing while growing up that his parents were activists. Amazingly, despite the decades-long struggle that we see him fight for a further four years, Basel is neither outwardly furious nor even restless. When his unlikely friend Yuval, an anti-occupation Israeli journalist, expresses disappointment at how many views his article about the evictions has gotten, Basel criticizes him for needing things to move so quickly.
No Other Land is as raw as the emotions it captures, squeezing together emblematic scenes of the precarious life the people of of Masafer Yatta lived between 2019 and 2023. Sometimes it does so with an acute sense of the compositional, as in a striking shot of Basel trying to take a nap in the foreground of the frame while a bulldozer races across the summit of a hill above him. And sometimes it does so with the urgency of cinema verité, as when the handheld camera jostles around or its autofocus blurs the image during frenzied confrontations.
Either way, as a document of the regular pressure endured by the people of Masafer Yatta, No Other Land has little use for a broader, more global view of the seemingly never-ending conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people over the lands preserved for the latter under UN decree. Although the villagers strategize with geopolitics in mind, and there’s a single montage of Basel and Yuval going on cable-news talk shows to bring attention to the plight, the film is only interested in macro-politics insofar as life in Masafer Yatta is embedded in it.
The point being, of course: The situation on the ground is inhumane and intolerable. Beyond the global view, what we see is people of modest means attempting to carry on life where they were born; soldiers who assault and intimidate journalists, who shoot unarmed civilians over unjustly confiscated property; and, eventually, armed Israeli settlers who, oddly, seem to be allowed to build homes in the military training zone. The film poses an unavoidable question: Why should anyone, much less Basel and his people, tolerate such brazen land grabs in the West Bank?
Toward the end of Basel’s record of events, the settlers begin joining the IDF soldiers in the raiding of homes. First, we see hooded settlers hurl rocks at Palestinians and their homes. Later, emboldened, the settlers show up with guns. This culminates in harrowing footage that Basel captured of his cousin being shot in the abdomen at close quarters by a settler with an assault rifle. With exceptional lucidity, No Other Land reminds us of the human stakes of Israel’s resettlement of the West Bank, and that fighting for justice starts from the ground up.
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