Middle East conflict – “No Other Land”: Risking your life while filming

Directors Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham certainly wanted something different. But if there is anything that can be learned in Germany from their documentary “No Other Land,” then it is the realization that the anti-Semitism discourse of official German authorities can no longer be trusted. State authorities have spread all kinds of allegations about this clever and touching film, which rightly won the Documentary and Audience Film Prize at the Berlinale in February. Berlin’s Governing Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) distanced himself from the film immediately after the award ceremony, while Secretary of State for Culture Claudia Roth announced that she had only applauded the Israeli Abraham in Berlin, but not the Palestinian Adra. Finally, the city of Berlin’s official website even accused the film of having “anti-Semitic tendencies” when it was released this week, which it then had to retract.

The whole thing is also so shocking because “No Other Land” is, first and foremost, a confession of radical humanity. In their film, Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham almost desperately try to build a connection beyond ethnic attributions and to defend it against the insane occupation regime. You really have to ask yourself what the point of memory politics is if it serves to denounce people’s resistance to their expulsion. What kind of lesson from fascism is that supposed to be?

But first things first: “No Other Land” takes place in a Palestinian village in the barren south of the West Bank, which has been claimed by Israel for a military training area since 1977. The families have been fighting against their expulsion for decades, which they have repeatedly been able to slow down with the help of international publicity. However, the conflict has escalated in recent years. An Israeli court has issued eviction orders, and the army is gradually tearing down the houses of the Palestinians, who are then forced to live in caves. It’s not hard to see what this is actually about: While the army needs the Palestinians’ land for military exercises, Jewish settlers have built new apartment blocks in the immediate vicinity.

“No Other Land” arises from the motivation of the young Palestinian Basel Adra to resist this injustice. With a courage that can only be described as heroic, he films the attacks of the state with his cell phone and risks his life in the process. Adra sees himself as both a journalist and a civil rights activist. He wants to mobilize an international public to stop the army. With this attitude, he also draws on the experiences of his father, who has been organizing civil disobedience against the expulsions for decades.

At this point, however, “No Other Land” adds another level of reflection: the Jewish-Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham joins his Palestinian colleague and begins to talk about his documentary work. In doing so, he also has to overcome resistance, because the walls of the Israeli-Palestinian two-class society prevent an encounter on equal terms.

The longer the film runs, the clearer it becomes what pro-Palestinian groups mean when they talk about “apartheid.” While Adra is only allowed to move in the West Bank (or more precisely: in parts of the West Bank) with his green ID card and is exposed to the arbitrariness of the soldiers, Abraham, as a Jewish Israeli, can refer to the protection of his constitutional state when he encounters military officers and settlers. If things get too dicey, he can return to a country where he lives in comparative safety.

But “No Other Land” is not primarily a film about the injustice that is done to the residents of the Palestinian village and that almost physically affects you as a viewer. Much more important is the story about the friendship between Basel and Yuval, who are both in their late 20s and whose connection is constantly being tested by the balance of power. Because Yuval is the only Israeli in the film who does not use violence against the Palestinians, and that is precisely why he repeatedly becomes a lightning rod for their anger.

After one of the villagers was shot by Israeli soldiers and became paralyzed down to the cervical spine, the situation became increasingly hopeless. At this point one wonders whether the anger of the villagers will not also be directed against the Israeli Yuval. But he stays because he feels that his solidarity will only become real if he, too, takes risks.

It’s touching to see how the two get closer and closer. How they sit exhausted in the café and try to distract themselves. How Basel regains his strength with gallows humor and how Yuval visibly suffers when his friend doubts him. In this sense, “No Other Land” is a tribute to solidarity. In a hopeless situation, two people try to see each other not as an ethnic collective but as a brother. And that’s exactly how this great, very personal film shows how the 100-year war for Palestine could end. Namely, by some standing up for others so that everyone can live in this place “from the river to the sea” with the same rights and freedoms.

»No Other Land«, Palestine/Norway 2024. Director: Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor. 95 min. Already started.