Basel Adra Of "No Other Land": Fighting Is Not An Option

LA VERSIONE IN ITALIANO SI TROVA QUI/HERE THE ITALIAN VERSION OF THIS POST

Palestine is asking for diplomatic weapons, not like Ukraine, and “if half of the sanctions put on Putin would be put on Israel the thing can be solved”. Keep on fighting for Palestine, although the efforts do not meet enough results, “it is not an option”, but a duty. These are some of the messages launched by Basel Adra, co-author of the Oscar winning documentary “No Other Land”, when he came to Naples (Italy) the 16 of June 2025.

On our Youtube Channel you will find the full speech he gave.

Below there are some of the questions we would have liked to ask Basel directly, and that we hope might find an answer in the future. We also hope they can contribute to a debate about the documentary and Palestine.

1) You studied law, while a country is imposing a brutal military occupation on your people, because you wanted to find ways to fight legal battles against the occupation. We have seen that International Law has largely failed (if not completely failed) to stop the genocide and the ethnic cleansing in Palestine, and we have seen it many years ago, long before the 7 October 2023. My question is: do you still believe in International Law and, if so, how it can be changed for the better. I think, for instance, about proposals to reform the UN system and the veto-power of the UN Security Council.

2) I believe “No Other Land” has a huge potential and I think it is making a difference, even if it is ostracized by many. There are some elements of storytelling that make it different from other documentaries and have the potential to speak to the hearts of a large audience, not only to people sensitive to human rights and Palestinian struggle. The documentary does not only provide valuable information on what is happening in the West Bank, but tells individual stories that touch the hearts of people, and this is the main reason for the success it gained, in my opinion.

However, in March PACBI, the academic and cultural branch of the BDS, issued a statement that sparked a debate, especially within the circles of activism. Basically, they did not call for the boycott of the movie in “mainstream circles, as opposed to Palestine film festivals and solidarity circles”. I read carefully their statement and, to me, the only clear accusation they made (besides the disapproval of the speech of Yuval Abraham at the Oscars) is the fact, or the assumption, that in the past (between 2021-2022 if I am correct) you cooperated with an organization called “Close Up”, which has previously been boycotted by other film-makers because of ties with another Israeli film-institution (they say it is the spin-off of “Green House Center”). That is also why, for PACBI, it violates their guidelines on the normalization of the occupation.

I also read other opinions within your community, particularly that of Nidal Younis, Head of the Council of Masafer Yatta. He said he respects the opinion of PACBI/BDS but also said that the documentary tells the true story of your community. He added that internationals and Jewish, like Yuval, are your true friends and allies, sleeping with you and defending the community together from the fascist settlers, bullies and army.

It would be really helpful for collectives and movements defending Palestine to have your opinion, as well as that of the other authors, on these alleged relations with “Close Up” and on the questions of “normalization” and relations with anti-zionist Israelis.

3) I strongly believe that the main problem with activism in general is the difficulty in reaching people who are not activists. In other words, we struggle to go beyond the “niches” and circles of activists. For this reason, I would like to ask you what would you like to say to people who do not care about human rights, who care about the war only when war is at their doorstep.

Paolo Maria Addabbo 

Thank you for making it to the end. "Fanrivista, La Fanzina Generalista" is an independent online magazine based in Italy and an example of "artisan", experimental and slow-news journalism. "Fan" stands for "fanzine" and "rivista" means "magazine". Roughly, it could be translated as "The General Press Fanzine" and it fuses characteristics of general media and autonomous publishing. 

In the past we have published some English content on our (a)social media profiles, as well as on the Fediverse (like this interview with Stella Assange and this question to Vijay Prashad—yet to be answered) and we are planning to publish more content following an internationalist perspective.

Please support our work by following us, hitting like buttons, commenting, criticizing and, if you can, also with a small donation: any kind of support is fundamental to keep our independence and continue publishing, especially because of market biases and algorithmic limitations imposed on our work. You can find the link to our (a)social media and Fediverse channels below (or just look for “@fanrivista” in different platforms).

Stay tuned and let’s stay connected!