Editor,
I was gobsmacked with astonished joy! A friend had just informed me that the 2025 Oscar for Best Documentary was “No Other Land.” I knew the setting and the main characters well, for I had lived with them. They changed my life!
Produced by Jewish Israeli journalist/filmmakers Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, and Muslim Palestinian journalists Basel Arad and Hamden Ballel, the documentary is of Palestinians nonviolently resisting their communities from demolition by the Israeli military and violent harassment from local Israeli settlers.
The Masafer Yatta is a group of communities south of Hebron in the West Bank. Families live in simple concrete dwellings or in cave housing, subsisting on their herds of sheep, olive trees, and small fields. Nearby religious-zealot Israeli settlers continually harass them, shielded by Israeli authorities.
Basel Arad was a boy in 2005, 2006 and 2008 when I lived in his small village as a trained volunteer with Christian Peacemaker Teams. I remember Basel along with a gaggle of other fun-loving kids that I sometimes helped out with their English-language lessons. Daytimes, I along with other team members would accompany shepherds, such as Basel’s father, into the fields with cameras to video-document frequent harassment of settlers. We worked closely with members of Israeli Jewish peace organizations.
I had heard that “No Other Land” was receiving top documentary film awards and reviews in Europe, and then on February 27 an Oscar. However, how could I watch the film? While “No Other Land” was distributed in 24 countries, no U.S. distributor had picked it up. It was obvious this was due to politicized intimidation. To watch the film, I had to acquire a legal VPN account that masks my U.S. Internet address to allow me to stream the video from Europe.
I became quite emotional watching the 95-minute documentary. As the film showed bulldozers demolishing Palestinian homes and a school, I remembered tearfully witnessing the demolition of peaceful Bedouin housing. As the film showed violent settlers physically attacking Palestinian farmers, destroying fields and equipment, I was reminded of my witnessing the same. It was poignant for me to see the documentary use archival footage from the timeframe I served in Masafer Yatta. The documentary shows soldiers and settlers attacking the filmmakers, breaking their cameras, and beating them, which stirred up my own remembrances. And now, the clear objective of Israel is to remove Palestinians from their lands.
Less than a month after the Oscars, Palestinian co-director Hamdan Ballal was attacked by Israeli settlers at his home in Susiya in the West Bank, and was left with head injuries. Then his ambulance ride to seek medical help was intercepted by the Israel military, who then interrogated Ballal for two days without treatment. Over 500 members of the Academy of Motion Pictures signed a letter that said, “The targeting of Ballal is not just an attack on one filmmaker — it is an attack on all those who dare to bear witness and tell inconvenient truths.”
I am willing to meet to discuss.
Allen Johnson
Dunmore
