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Conflict in the Middle East

Has anyone watched No Other Land by Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham & Palestinian activist Basel Adra?

70 replies

ExitPursuedByAPolarBear · 23/02/2025 20:20

Just that, really. I’ve been meaning to watch No Other Land after a friend highly recommended it. She said Basel Adra, the Palestinian journalist, one of the co-directors, shares eye-opening insights and footage on X (formerly Twitter) about the experiences of those living in the West Bank.

I’ve been told that it documents the forced displacement of Palestinian communities in the West Bank, apparently with both directors offering a unique perspective from opposite sides of the conflict.

For those who have seen it – what did you think?

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8
Scirocco · 14/03/2025 10:32

caramac04 · 14/03/2025 10:05

I hadn’t heard about this - probably I’m living under a rock. Thank you, I will watch this.

There's not been as much publicity about it as it really deserves, so I think a lot of people haven't had a chance to hear about it. I hope you find it interesting!

DonnaHadDee · 14/03/2025 20:06

I was back home 2 weeks ago, and a group of us from our prayer meeting watched it. It was interesting to see some current material on the topic, but there was no surprise for me. Israel has been on a path of removal people on the West Bank for decades. There is nothing new here to see.

My only comment would be that it is important to realize that this effort has been long supported by the democratically elected Israeli governments.

ExitPursuedByAPolarBear · 18/03/2025 16:11

RhannionKPSS · 14/03/2025 07:59

Oh so dismissive of what has happened to Jewish people over centuries! The Jewish community deserves a place, their labs where they can live without fear.
They are surrounded by countries, full of those who hate them & that want to wipe them off the face of the earth.
I’ll pass on on this propaganda piece

@RhannionKPSS If you haven’t watched something then how can you use your own critical thinking skills? Instead you’ve already labelled it as “propaganda”. Why is that?

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EasterIssland · 24/03/2025 20:10

Message from Yuval

A group of settlers attacked the home of Hamdan Bilal, who directed the Oscar-winning film No Other Land with me. They beat him in the head and all over his body. While wounded and bleeding, soldiers entered the ambulance he had called and arrested him. He has since disappeared and it is unclear whether he is receiving medical treatment or what is happening to him.

https://x.com/yuval_abraham/status/1904235756606107722

https://x.com/yuval_abraham/status/1904235756606107722

ExitPursuedByAPolarBear · 24/03/2025 23:30

@EasterIssland Thanks for the update. I just googled it now and came across this article. I wonder why the rest of the settlers weren’t arrested. Soldiers invaded the ambulance and arrested him when he was clearly injured 😞.

Oscar-winning Palestinian director attacked by Israeli settlers and arrested

No Other Land’s Hamdan Ballal attacked by armed settlers in West Bank and handed to Israeli military, witnesses say

https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/24/oscar-winning-palestinian-director-attacked-by-israeli-settlers-and-arrested

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ScrollingLeaves · 25/03/2025 00:28

ExitPursuedByAPolarBear · 24/03/2025 23:30

@EasterIssland Thanks for the update. I just googled it now and came across this article. I wonder why the rest of the settlers weren’t arrested. Soldiers invaded the ambulance and arrested him when he was clearly injured 😞.

Note how the attacked were called terrorists in the Israeli report. Note the propensity of Israeli officials to lie in Israeli official reports.

TooBigForMyBoots · 25/03/2025 01:16

Israeli settlers are terrorists.

EasterIssland · 25/03/2025 14:27

Finally good news. Comment from yuval

Hamdan Ballal is free and is about to go home to his family

ps from this morning(also yuval)
After the assault, Hamdan was handcuffed and blindfolded all night in an army base while two soldiers beat him up on the floor, his lawyer Leah Tsemel said after speaking with him just now. He's still held in the Kiryat Arba police station.

NoviceVillager · 25/03/2025 22:15

No Other Land is still available on Channel 4. It’s a really moving film.

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ScrollingLeaves · 29/03/2025 09:03

ExitPursuedByAPolarBear · 29/03/2025 02:23

I did find this recent article about the West Bank quite interesting.

The Israeli actions are abhorrent.

For decades now, Israel has been using military rule as well as its planning regime to take over huge swaths of Area C, land that is Palestinian – lived and worked on for generations.

This has been achieved through Israel’s High Planning Council, an institution constituted solely of Israelis who oversee the use of the land through permits – a system that invariably benefits Israelis and subjugates Palestinians, so much so that Israel denies access to Palestinians of 99 per cent of the land in Area C including their own agricultural lands and private property.

ExitPursuedByAPolarBear · 29/03/2025 11:29

@ScrollingLeaves And somehow the movie is considered propaganda when it’s clear as day what’s happening in the West Bank without any legal recourse for the Palestinians.

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ScrollingLeaves · 30/03/2025 19:56

The film must have got to them as the settlers and IDF are redoubling on their destructive, racist, and supremecist efforts.

Haaretz (without the links, videos or stills of the Israeli attacks, or photographs of ransacked houses etc) :

Over 100 Israeli Soldiers, Settlers Raid Village in West Bank's Masafer Yatta,
^Locals Say
Around 140 Israelis, both in uniform and in civilian clothing, entered the village in the early hours of Saturday. The attack was the second raid in as many days, following the wounding of six Palestinians and a mass arrest of residents by the IDF on Friday^

Israeli soldiers and settlers spent several hours early Saturday morning vandalizing a Palestinian village in the Masafer Yatta area of the West Bank, marking the second attack on the village in two days, according to testimonies by local residents.

The residents of the Jinba village reported that between 2 A.M. and 6:30 A.M., around 140 uniformed and civilian-dressed Israelis raided the village, broke into all the homes, dumped food, vandalized appliances and terrorized the locals.

The IDF confirmed it carried out an overnight operation in the village to search for weapons but did not disclose any findings. The army added that allegations of soldiers "deviating from procedures" during the searches are under investigation by the brigade commander.

On Friday morning, a young settler shepherd complained that he had been assaulted and lightly wounded by Palestinians near Jinba. In footage obtained by Haaretz, the settler who claimed to have been assaulted is seen driving away a herd of sheep and Palestinian shepherds.

Later, a settler mob raided the village and beat six residents with batons. One of the wounded, a 64-year-old man, suffered skull fractures and chest trauma. Four other casualties were hospitalized at the Yatta hospital, including a 15-year-old boy who is currently in the intensive-care unit.

Dozens of Israeli soldiers came to Jinba several hours after the attack. They ordered all the men of the village to get out of their homes, then handcuffed, blindfolded and detained 22 of them. Though the police claimed they had all "taken an active part" in the assault on the shepherd, 17 of the Palestinian detainees were released around midnight.

The villagers said that, overnight into Saturday, the army again raided the village, this time with a much larger force. "Seven soldiers entered each house and told everyone in it, including women and children, to stand in one corner, and they began to destroy everything," recounted Nidal Younes, head of both the Jinba and Masafer Yatta councils.

He added that the soldiers "broke televisions, refrigerators and cameras. They broke the toilets, ripped out faucets, removed food from the pantry and dumped everything onto the ground."

"After one group finished, another group of soldiers destroyed what was left," Younes said. He recalled how one soldier told him, "'You thought you were strong yesterday, now we'll show you that we're stronger.'"

The soldiers left the village on Saturday morning. The villagers, who were still observing Ramadan, did not have time to eat a suhoor meal before the break of dawn, when they must start fasting.

Local residents said that they recognized some of the uniformed men who raided the village as settlers from the area, and that others wore civilian clothing. They added that some of the vehicles used by the soldiers were all-terrain vehicles and civilian cars from nearly outposts.

Lawyer Neta Amar, the villagers' counsel, sent a letter to the army and police this morning, in which she wrote that "The army militia broke all the houses, cameras, school, clinic, and mosque, and killed and drove away sheep."

Local residents said that they recognized some of the uniformed men who raided the village as settlers from the area, and that others wore civilian clothing. They added that some of the vehicles used by the soldiers were all-terrain vehicles and civilian cars from nearly outposts.

Lawyer Neta Amar, the villagers' counsel, sent a letter to the army and police this morning, in which she wrote that "The army militia broke all the houses, cameras, school, clinic, and mosque, and killed and drove away sheep."

^Amar called the incident a "large-scale pogrom and hate crime, a continuation of Friday's hate crimes and pogrom," and said it indicated the "breakdown of any ethical code and any rule of law by the army and the settler militias that have taken it over."
called the incident a "large-scale pogrom and hate crime, a continuation of Friday's hate crimes and pogrom," and said it indicated the "breakdown of any ethical code and any rule of law by the army and the settler militias that have taken it over."^

She demanded that an investigation be opened against the assailants, as well as that the village be protected and compensated for the damages the residents suffered.

Earlier this week, Palestinian activist and co-director of the Oscar-winning film "No Other Land," Hamdan Ballal, was arrested in Masafer Yatta along with two other Palestinians. According to their testimony, Israeli settlers attacked them while Israel Defense Forces soldiers stood by without intervening. Ballal, a well-known Palestinian activist in the area, also said that he was beaten by soldiers while blindfolded and handcuffed. The three detainees were left outside overnight, bound and blindfolded, on the ground at an IDF base.

ExitPursuedByAPolarBear · 11/04/2025 13:29

@ScrollingLeaves Thanks for this. It’s extremely gut-wrenching to read about what’s happening in Masafer Yatta. This isn’t “security” – it’s collective punishment, vandalism, and terror under the guise of military operations. The fact that over 100 armed soldiers and settlers can storm a village in the middle of the night, trash homes, destroy food and belongings, and brutalise residents – without consequences – says everything about the power imbalance.

What’s even more disturbing is how these very acts are then used to justify the next wave of repression. Palestinians defending their homes or simply existing under occupation are instantly labelled as threats or Hamas supporters. But the truth is: the average Palestinian is just trying to survive – facing systemic settler violence, home demolitions, arbitrary arrests, and the complete erosion of their basic rights.

And then when someone documents it – like Ballal and his co-director in No Other Land—they get arrested and beaten too. This isn’t just a military operation. It’s a project of domination — and we should all be outraged in the human rights violations taking place.

There has been an arrest warrant for Bibi Netyanhu but instead of answering for his and his government’s actions, he’s just shown what he really thinks of the International Criminal Court.

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ExitPursuedByAPolarBear · 11/04/2025 13:37

What’s more, the attack on aid workers doesn’t seem to stop and Israel keeps on repeating the same thing over and over again. Israel's army has admitted its soldiers “made mistakes” over the killing of 15 emergency workers in southern Gaza on 23 March. Israel only changed the story when the video was released showing what actually happened. I think I saw the footage on a trending subreddit originally, I didn’t understand fully what was going on except for the fact that that the IDF was shooting people until I read the BBC articles.

Palestinian Red Crescent Society employees embrace as the bodies of their colleagues are brought to a medical facility in Khan Younis, southern Gaza. Photo: 30 March 2025

Gaza: Red Cross outraged over killing of medics by Israeli forces

Six Civil Defence first responders and a UN employee were also killed in the incident in Rafah on 23 March.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crkxm1rg6k1o

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ExitPursuedByAPolarBear · 18/04/2025 02:22

I just found out something heartbreaking. A Palestinian photojournalist, who will be appearing in an upcoming documentary called Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, was killed alongside her family in an Israeli airstrike I am assuming a few days ago. Fatma Hassona was only 25 years old. I’m not sure what the documentary is about, but I do know that according to the Time Magazine article it was selected for a parallel section of Cannes Film Festival, ACID.

Photojournalist Fatma Hassona Killed in Gaza

Photojournalist Fatma Hassona was killed in Gaza, a month before her doc was set to premiere in Cannes.

https://time.com/7278730/fatma-hassona-israel-killed-journalist-gaza/

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ScrollingLeaves · 18/04/2025 16:25

ExitPursuedByAPolarBear · 18/04/2025 02:22

I just found out something heartbreaking. A Palestinian photojournalist, who will be appearing in an upcoming documentary called Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, was killed alongside her family in an Israeli airstrike I am assuming a few days ago. Fatma Hassona was only 25 years old. I’m not sure what the documentary is about, but I do know that according to the Time Magazine article it was selected for a parallel section of Cannes Film Festival, ACID.

The IDF like to say how precise their bombing is. I wonder what it was in this case. What a tragedy and waste.

ExitPursuedByAPolarBear · 18/04/2025 16:51

@ScrollingLeaves Agreed. So the fact that the Israeli military waits for their targets to be at home before dropping their bombs just goes to show that they have no regard for innocent lives. Seeing Fatma’s beaming smiling knowing that both she and her family members were targeted for no reason at all apart from participating in a documentary, shows how quickly voices can be silenced
amidst the chaos. She was working on a project with her friend called The Story Remains and I really wish that her friend can continue it without her so that she can still fulfil her dream of exhibiting abroad.

Killing Gaza s eye : Who was Palestinian photojournalist Fatima Hassouna?

"She tried to catch moments of happiness as if they were butterflies," Abu Asi added.  "Even when the world around her was burning, Fatima planned for joy."

https://www.newarab.com/news/killing-gazas-eye-who-was-photojournalist-fatima-hassouna?amp

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Mylegishangingoff · 18/04/2025 22:41

ExitPursuedByAPolarBear · 18/04/2025 16:51

@ScrollingLeaves Agreed. So the fact that the Israeli military waits for their targets to be at home before dropping their bombs just goes to show that they have no regard for innocent lives. Seeing Fatma’s beaming smiling knowing that both she and her family members were targeted for no reason at all apart from participating in a documentary, shows how quickly voices can be silenced
amidst the chaos. She was working on a project with her friend called The Story Remains and I really wish that her friend can continue it without her so that she can still fulfil her dream of exhibiting abroad.

I read about Fatima earlier today and just felt so sad. So many bright, educated women with so much to offer to not just Palestine but to all of us, slaughtered without a second thought by Israel. Another bomb dropped amongst over 100,000 tons of bombs, another life gone amongst over 50,000 lives gone.

I hope Fatima is remembered as she wished to be, she deserves that at least.
"As for the inevitable death, if I die, I want a loud death, I don't want me in a breaking news story, nor in a number with a group, I want a death that is heard by the world, a trace that lasts forever, and immortal images that neither time nor place can bury."

ScrollingLeaves · 19/04/2025 00:13

Mylegishangingoff · 18/04/2025 22:41

I read about Fatima earlier today and just felt so sad. So many bright, educated women with so much to offer to not just Palestine but to all of us, slaughtered without a second thought by Israel. Another bomb dropped amongst over 100,000 tons of bombs, another life gone amongst over 50,000 lives gone.

I hope Fatima is remembered as she wished to be, she deserves that at least.
"As for the inevitable death, if I die, I want a loud death, I don't want me in a breaking news story, nor in a number with a group, I want a death that is heard by the world, a trace that lasts forever, and immortal images that neither time nor place can bury."

Haaretz writes

Only a day before Hassona's death, Cannes' ACID program – a sidebar section of the festival run by the French independent cinemas association – announced that a documentary about her, made by Iranian-born filmmaker Sepideh Farsi, will be screened at this year's festival.

On Thursday, ACID posted a tribute to Hassona on Instagram. "Her smile was as magical as her tenacity," their statement said, "bearing witness, photographing Gaza, distributing food despite the bombs, mourning and hunger. We heard her story, rejoiced at each of her appearances to see her alive, we feared for her."

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