Throughout the history of humanity, human beings have participated in or experienced countless conflicts between countries, and whenever we talk about war, we immediately think about the “major conflicts” like the Vietnam War, the attack on Pearl Harbor, the terror of World War II, and the most recent conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
However, without realizing it, we neglect the conflicts that still occur in the Middle East — conflicts that have been going on for decades and that, unfortunately, do not receive the necessary attention.
Wars over territory destroy entire lives, and despite the protests, unfortunately, nothing changes. With that in mind, we need to talk about the importance of a documentary like this and how the win of No Other Land shows the power and impact that protests have.
A long fight for a big change
The journalist, lawyer, activist, and one of the directors of the documentary No Other Land, released in 2024, Basel Adra, managed to gain the visibility he spent five years seeking alongside Yuval Abraham for his people of Masafer Yatta by going up on stage in front of an international network to receive the statuette for best documentary of the year.
The 96-minute film chronicles the Israeli army’s invasion of Palestinian villages in the southern West Bank to build military training zones.
Unfortunately, these invasions have now intensified after the Israeli Supreme Court downed the only legal impediment that protected these families from the invasion of their territories.
A sad reality that needs to be seen
Basel Adra and Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham showed real scenes to the world of families being evicted from their homes to destroy them, schools being demolished, people resorting to cave dwellings, and Palestinians being rendered quadriplegic by the Israeli army as they fight for their rights.
But, despite the great reluctance to reproduce the documentary in American cinemas, Massafer Yatta has finally been seen. And even if this work does not bring an instant end to this decades-long war, at least it receives a few minutes of everyone’s attention, and after the speeches by some of the documentary’s directors, these people devastated by the invasion will certainly not be forgotten so quickly.
Basal Adra also posts videos on his social media about the terrible realities that residents face. These are videos that many people refuse to watch because they are sad or contain very graphic scenes. But in a situation like that, videos like this have never been so necessary because, as difficult as it may be to watch, we need to know what is happening in the other parts of the world. What a war for territory does to innocent families and children.
This is a cruel reality that is very different from ours, so distant that we cannot even understand it, but we can certainly help.
It is in these moments that journalism becomes essential. Journalists who are willing to go to places and listen to citizens are the only hope left for all the destroyed families and for the mothers who have lost their children. The hope is that someone with a louder voice will take charge of the situation and show in all newspapers around the world the tragedy caused by the Israeli military, who didn’t think twice before ending a life.
Banality of evil in Massafer Yatta
Hannah Arendt once said, “A life without thinking is entirely possible, but it fails to unfold its essence – it is not only meaningless; it is not fully alive. Men who do not think are like sleepwalkers.” Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Tale of the Banality of Evil.
By writing this sentence in her book, the philosopher relates “sleepwalker men” with the definition of her theory about the banality of evil. In which she states that people who practice these actions do not reflect on the consequences that their actions can cause to others and often carry out such practices on orders, without even questioning how much harm this could cause to citizens.
Although his book was published in 1963, this type of evil is still, unfortunately, a reality for many people, including the people of Massafer Yatta, who have faced this type of cruelty for decades. The government and the Israeli army do not reflect on the harm they cause to all families. All the death, sadness, and destruction are caused by a fight of interests between some men, but in this case, those who suffer the severe consequences are the innocent people.
The condemnation of freedom of expression
The documentary, which has already accumulated four international awards in the category of “best documentary”, including the Oscar, has four directors: the activist Basel Adra, the Israeli director Rachel Szor, the Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal, and the Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham.
Theoretically, all four directors have full rights and freedom to show this documentary to the world; however, the only difference between the four is that only two of them are considered free under Israeli law, while the other two have to live in fear of being caught at any moment.
And unfortunately, that was the case of filmmaker Hamdan Ballal, who, after being lynched by settlers throwing stones, having received several blows to the head, and receiving death threats with weapons, Ballal, who was seriously injured and bleeding, was taken to the ambulance, where he was soon forcibly removed by Israeli soldiers.
In an interview with the British newspaper The Guardian, Ballal said that despite being injured, he was handcuffed and blindfolded by soldiers and taken to a police station in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba, where he spent the night being beaten and tortured by IDF soldiers. After a long night of great pain and fear, the filmmaker was released and returned to his family.
Although there is a lot of suffering, the documentary shows us not only the pain of these families but also the forces that unite to continue fighting and protesting for a better future for their next generations. Even though they know their disadvantages, every day they fight a battle that no one ever fought for them in all these years.
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The article above was edited by Julia Tortoriello.
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