Our film is going to the Oscars. But here in Masafer Yatta, we’re still being erased
Israeli army forces demolish a house and a water well in Al-Samu in the village of Susya, south of Hebron in the West Bank, 11 December 2024.
Basel Adra reports in +972 on 10 February 2025:
Throughout the making of “No Other Land” — our documentary about the struggle and resilience of the Palestinian residents of Masafer Yatta in the face of Israel’s efforts to expel us — one question persisted: Will anyone even watch this? Will anyone care?
From the moment the film premiered in Berlin last year, the answer became clear. Thousands of messages of solidarity, inquiries about how to watch it, and invitations from film festivals around the world proved that there was an overwhelming appetite to hear our story. And last month, it was even nominated for an Oscar.
This is a tremendous achievement — not just for us as filmmakers, but for the activists, friends, and partners in the struggle who spend long hours in the field, facing violence and arrest in the fight against oppression and colonization. It is also a testament to the lawyers who persist in Israeli courts, determined to secure any means of helping Palestinians remain on their land within a system designed to legitimize the occupation.
But first and foremost, it is a victory for the people of Masafer Yatta, a collection of small villages at the southern tip of the occupied West Bank, whose resilience reflects their unwavering commitment to their land. While the occupation seeks to erase their existence, their steadfastness continues to inspire us to resist, document, and fight for justice.
Despite the exciting success of the film in festivals and among journalists and audiences around the world, however, the situation here on the ground is deteriorating rapidly and the future looks bleak. Over the past 16 months, Israeli settlers and the military have taken advantage of the atmosphere of the war to reshape reality in Masafer Yatta in favor of settlers and their outposts, intensifying their efforts to displace us from our land. Even as I write this, the Israeli army is conducting a major demolition operation in the community of Khalet A-Daba, razing homes, toilets, solar panels, and trees.