REVIEW: لا أرض أخرى [No Other Land] [2024]

Rating: NR | Runtime: 92 minutes
Director(s): Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal & Rachel Szor
Writer(s): Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal & Rachel Szor

We have no other land. That’s why we suffer for it.

Even though the filmmaking collective of Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Hamdan Ballal, and Rachel Szor make sure to date the steady progression of footage that makes up their documentary No Other Land, the reminder that everything we see happened before October 7th, 2023 still proves jarring—especially for those who’ve had their heads in the sand to the decades-long Apartheid oppression that has been inflicted upon Palestinians by Israeli settlers. While Benjamin Netanyahu loves to hide behind that date for international support today, the Israeli government’s systematic destruction of Arab human rights in the region was always at their initiative. To assert control. To murder innocents. To steal land.

What’s happened to and continues to happen in Masafer Yatta of the West Bank proves as much. This is occupied territory. Palestinian territory encroached on by Israeli settlers. A community of villages that existed on maps pre-World War II until Israel erased them in a bid to pretend their settlements were legally acquired because they were “abandoned.” The residents fought in an Israeli court for twenty years to stop the expulsions and razing of homes, schools, and infrastructure only to finally be told in 2022 that the invaders had the right to declare all existing property null and void. Everything the people of Masafer Yatta owned and operated was deemed illegal overnight.

The purpose of this film is therefore to show the world how Israelis have always stolen land without any threat of courtroom retribution. By refusing to grant Palestinians rights while also acting as their custodians, they enforce their laws upon Palestinian regions. If their judges and juries deem it legal to bulldoze a populated Arab village to use as a training ground for tanks, what oppositional recourse exists? None. Not when the soldiers chaperoning those bulldozers can “legally” and retroactively transform those who are being displaced into “illegal” squatters. An incestuous justice system rubber stamps a hostile takeover and the western world accepts it without reservation. “If Israel says it’s true, it must be.”

It’s difficult then to separate the emotional rage at what Basel, Yuval, Hamdan, and Rachel capture from the filmmaking itself. I’d argue you shouldn’t because the content is too important to risk devaluing it for whatever technical issue you might have with the delivery device. People surely will, though. People will also spout the lies that Israel has the right to fill a water well with cement because Palestinians didn’t receive a permit regardless of the timeline, the inability to receive said permit, or the secret documents revealing how this entire plan to “create military training areas” was a purposeful means to displace and demoralize the Arabs who’ve lived there for generations.

I do think already knowing about the Palestinian plight will help, though, considering the film is very specifically about Masafer Yatta and how what’s happening there is one example of what’s happening throughout the region (see The Viewing Booth, The Present, Farha, and Inch’Allah). You get a little bit of the disparity in rights between them and Israelis through Basel and Yuvel’s friendship (the former lives here but cannot leave or protect his home while the latter is granted the freedom to come and go as he pleases), but it goes so much further than having two different license plates for pre-approved travel. Hopefully those who haven’t been watching pro-Palestinian content for the past two decades will seek more out as a result of No Other Land. Everyone must start somewhere and this is an appropriately incendiary introduction.

Either way, it’s impossible not to become invested in what occurs on-screen (unless you’re so far down the indoctrination rabbit hole that there’s no hope for you anyway). Not just via the current atrocities like the fate of Harun and the demolition of an elementary school, but the protests that Basel’s parents have been leading and documenting here for years. It’s not a coincidence that he grew up to study law and become a journalist on the front lines of his community’s fight for justice. Nor is it surprising that this never-ending struggle wears on him. He’s known nothing else. So, while it’s nice that Yuval is here to shed light, you can’t begrudge Basel’s frustrations that his new friend can escape it each night.

Because if Israel wants to silence Yuvel, they defame him through the media. If they want to silence Basel, they flatten his home, arrest him if that doesn’t work, and eventually open fire. It’s yet another example of the unfair disparity that goes along with the license plates, checkpoints, etc. And it’s why having them share credit here goes a long way towards legitimizing the truth for those who would otherwise scream “propaganda” had Basel been operating alone. Will it be enough to sway minds when dead babies and burning patients haven’t yet? The thing about injustice is that those with the means to expose it must do so regardless of whether anyone is currently paying attention. Like Basel says, “You need patience.”

No Other Land had an Oscars-qualifying run on November 1st, 2024.