The UN Palestinian Rights Committee held its 422nd meeting on 3rd April 2025.
The speakers delved into the human rights and legal aspects surrounding land issues in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The meeting featured the Palestinian co-Director of the Oscar-winning documentary film “ No Other Land ” Mr. Basel Adra, who shared his unique insights. There were briefings by Ms. Netta Amar-Shiff, Human Rights Lawyer (via VTC), Mr. James Turpin, Chief, Prevention and Sustaining Peace Section, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and Dr. Younis Khatib, President, Palestine Red Crescent Society.
After winning the Oscar for No Other Land, the film’s Palestinian co-directors returned to occupation and violence, the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People heard today in a meeting where several speakers drew attention to the increasing collusion between Israeli settlers and the State apparatus.
Basel Adra, one of the three co-directors of No Other Land, said he grew up seeing bulldozers entering Palestinian communities and destroying homes. But this was so routine that journalists were not interested in covering it. So, as a teenager, he started carrying a camera and filming because he wanted the world to see what it was like to live under brutal occupation.
Five years ago, he started working on the documentary with friends, he said, adding that the movie succeeded beyond expectations. “But even after winning the Oscar, we went back to the same reality,” he observed. He detailed many harrowing stories of violence, destruction and arbitrary detention. Three weeks after the Oscars, settlers attacked a mosque in the village of one of his co-directors, Hamdan Ballal. About 20 settlers started vandalizing the village. Hamdan tried to protect his family by locking the door of his house and standing outside, but two soldiers started beating him, and then abducted him and two other Palestinians to a military base. He spent 20 hours in the base, handcuffed and blindfolded while soldiers mistreated him — when he was brought to interrogation, he was accused of attacking the settler and only after he paid a fine was he able to leave and get medical treatment.
