No Other Land: A Powerful Documentary or a Step to Normalisation?

The documentary is undoubtedly powerful & disturbing. Yet its presentation to the world at the Oscars is undoubtedly problematic.

After its win at the Oscars I decided to find “NoOtherLand” on line and give it a watch. It is powerful and disturbing - and incredibly well made.

However, after an initial comment I made about the film’s quality, I realised that I could not comment about some of how it is being presented to the world which is problematic.

The film tells a story of one community in #Palestine where Basel Adra’s family are from. It shows their bravery & dignity in the face of gross injustice that leaves the viewer in despair - whilst they show patience and perseverance.

It also shows the immense cowardice of the occupiers who engage unarmed Palestinians when they feel with weapons in large numbers. You get a glimpse of how many Palestinian end up in jails or killed - but also of how fragile the occupiers feel themselves to be, in the way they deal with a population that is much weaker in a material sense.

The experience of the village is different to #Gaza and #AlQuds but shows how the ethnic cleansing happens in villages in the West Bank.

There are too many shocking and moving moments to share.

The screams of a family as their generator - a lifeline for them - is seized - then a struggle and a shot, leaving a man paralysed from the neck down.

The scene of his dignified mother is most moving- when says that she hopes Allah takes her son to relieve him of his life - as the film portrays they aren’t allowed to build a house for him to live in their own village, or drive a car to take him to hospital.

There is a scene Tony Blair as Middle East envoy visits the village and then demolitions are stopped and Basel says he learned that power what decides their fate, not any justice (I am paraphrasing). For me that scene represents the worst of the colonial occupation. Blair’s visit might have stopped the demolitions in one village for while. It did not stop the ethnic cleaning nor give the people of Masafer Yatta any sense of long term security. But more than that it shows the western powers know detail of the cruelty and injustice Palestinians face.

The filmmaker Basel Adra is clearly very brave because he faced enormous violence & risks filming the footage, along with his family and neighbours.

In my first comment on the film I had mention that I thought that the co-director, journalist Yuval Abraham was also brave for speaking out as minority voice.

I had thought he might be the exception that proves the rule - but it would seem he is not. I have since learned that he holds many problematic views not least that he merely believes in a different sort of occupation to the current set up, which he clearly does not see as sustainable - not a liberation for the people of Palestine.

He clearly holds on to the fantasy that there will be a a truly just democratic non-apartheid state. However, he’s living in a place where more than 80% of “Israelis” disagree with him. That absence of mainstream opinion amongst the occupiers is a journalistic weakness on his part (because he was the journalist at the time of its filming). An ill-informed observer might think he represents a large constituency. The truth is that he doesn’t - and it’s become even smaller since 7/10/23. That being said, it is a documentary about a village - so you could argue the wider picture would detract from the core human story.

Some have commented that it is sad that Palestinian voices cannot be heard without being coupled to “soft Israeli” voices. This is indeed sad, but the film probably only made it to the Oscars because of that bias that exists.

Others have said that it’s a step to normalisation because it is billed as a joint “Israeli-Palestinian” venture. That is definitely the case. The presentation of the film at the Oscars and Yuval’s speech continue to normalise the idea of two states with some equivalence in terms of justice.

But watch the film and you will see there is nothing remotely normal about this occupation. You can dress it up with the bling of “Tel Aviv”and tourism of “Eilat”. But there’s only so much perfume you can apply on a rotting corpse.

Abdul Wahid has been active in Muslim affairs in the UK for over 25 years. He has been published on the websites of Foreign Policy, Open Democracy, the Times Higher Educational Supplement, and Prospect Magazine. You can follow him on X/Twitter @AbdulWahid_X and elsewhere: https://linktr.ee/abdulwahid101010