The Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land reveals how Israel’s “micro-occupations” in the West Bank have today turned into a “macro-tragedy” in Gaza. The hands that filled water wells with cement in the documentary are now the architects of policies that destroy hospitals.
M. NEDİM HAZAR | COMMENTARY
Let me first establish a broad context before discussing the Oscar-winning documentary.
It does not take much effort to see that the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza in the first quarter of 2024 is actually the latest and most intense manifestation of a decades-long systematic displacement policy. In the latest Israeli attacks, a strategy of operations has been pursued that completely destroys civilian infrastructure under the guise of “military targets.”
The systematic destruction of schools, hospitals, water sources, and residential areas appears to be an expanded version of the practices we see in the documentary—wells being filled with cement, homes being demolished, and educational institutions being wiped out. This approach, which renders life unsustainable, can be interpreted as part of a strategy to “create an uninhabitable region.”
Donald Trump’s recent explicit proposal to “evacuate Palestinians from Gaza” is essentially a diplomatically packaged version of displacement policies, as seen in the documentary we will discuss shortly. Despite the reality that “there is no other country,” the international community is being presented with the idea of relocating Gaza’s residents “somewhere else.” In this sense, the justification of “military training zones” observed in the documentary reappears today in the form of “security corridors” and “buffer zones”—in both cases, the ultimate goal remains the same: the systematic removal of a people from their own land.
The most striking aspect of this strategy is how the displacement process advances in “drips,” stretched out over time to distract global public opinion. The step-by-step process documented so powerfully in No Other Land is now progressing at a much faster pace, in an environment where the international media’s attention has been diverted and war fatigue is being felt. Humanitarian crises that made front-page headlines four weeks ago have now fallen to the inside pages, while the process of displacement continues uninterrupted.
Basel Adra’s statement in the documentary—”You can’t expect the occupation to end in ten days!”—is a crucial key to understanding what is happening today. Unless the necessary steps are taken to resolve the conflict, the cycle of displacement, dispossession, and destruction of living spaces we witness in the region will continue to repeat itself with different actors and narratives.
The fundamental truth that No Other Land painfully reveals is that Palestinians have nowhere else to go. The solutions presented today under terms like “humanitarian corridor” or “temporary evacuation” carry traces of a permanent displacement strategy, a perspective made even clearer through the documentary. When people are torn from their homes, land, and identities, what is lost is not just a physical living space but also a cultural memory, a sense of belonging, and a vision for the future.
Calling on us to witness the things that “those in power do not consider important,” the documentary helps us see the “cumulative effect of micro-aggressions” by looking at the past to understand today’s events. The stories told in the documentary demonstrate that the current crisis is not a sudden emergence but part of a system that has been ongoing for decades.
Now, let’s move on to the film…
One of the most striking documentary films of recent years, No Other Land, which won the Best Documentary Feature Oscar at the 97th Academy Awards, stands as a powerful testimony centering on human stories within the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The documentary was actually a project filmed before the latest turmoil. Shot between 2019 and 2023 in the Masafer Yatta region in the southern West Bank, the film emerged through the unexpected collaboration of people from two different worlds—Palestinian activist Basel Adra and Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham.
The documentary, a joint effort by four Palestinian and Israeli directors (Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Hamdan Ballal, and Rachel Szor), records the systematic displacement process of Masafer Yatta residents, home demolitions, and everyday violence under the pretext of Israel’s military training zones. Defined as a “power story,” the film focuses not on grand political narratives but on the micro-level effects of occupation—the struggles of individuals to resist and survive.
Though No Other Land was completed just before the October 7, 2023, attacks and the subsequent destruction in Gaza, it provides a striking perspective for understanding the historical background of today’s conflicts. While collecting awards at international film festivals, the difficulties it has faced in screenings and distribution, particularly in the West, highlight the fact that this film is not only an artistic work but also a deeply political one.
Examining the Film’s Title
Translated directly from English, No Other Land means “There is No Other Land” or “There is No Other Country.” However, within the context of the documentary, the title carries a multi-layered meaning:
- As a Living Space: For Palestinians living in Masafer Yatta, it emphasizes that they have “nowhere else to go” when forcibly displaced.
- As an Identity: It reflects the fact that both Palestinians and Israelis consider this land their only “homeland”—expressing their deep attachment to the same territory.
- In a Political Sense: It hints at the necessity of either a two-state solution or a single-state structure, underscoring the inevitability of coexisting on the same land.
- On an Existential Level: It conveys the reality that Palestinians have “no other country,” illustrating the risk of losing not only their land but also their identity if they are displaced.
In an interview, Basel Adra, one of the film’s directors, stated that the title encapsulates the situation of Palestinians—there is no other country for displaced people; this land is their only option. The title also expresses the tragic deadlock created by both Palestinians’ and Israelis’ claims to the same land.
The film, produced through the collaboration of representatives from both sides, does not claim to be neutral. On the contrary, it explicitly chooses to tell the story of the powerless, the displaced, and the ones who resist. The reality captured through Basel Adra’s camera—who says, “I have nothing but my phone”—reminds us that witnessing, recording, and telling the story can be a political act.
At a time when the immediacy of global crises often dulls our sensitivity to their historical weight, No Other Land stands before us as a piercing antidote. This is a documentary that refuses to let the slow bleeding of occupation fade into the background noise of our collective consciousness. Directed by a collective of Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers—Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Hamdan Ballal, and Rachel Szor—and winning the Best Documentary Oscar at the 97th Academy Awards, this film is not just a record of events but an instinctive confrontation with the human cost of power.
Filmed between 2019 and 2023 in the southern West Bank’s Masafer Yatta region, No Other Land compresses decades of struggle into 96 minutes of relentless clarity, bringing together personal stories, archival footage, and raw, real-time documentation to expose the brutal mechanics of displacement.
