Basel Adra[a] (or Al-Adra;[b] Arabic: باسل عدرا or باسل العدرا; born June 13, 1996) is a Palestinian activist, lawyer and journalist. He has documented attempts by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to expel Palestinian villagers from the occupied West Bank and their violent encounters with Israeli settlers.[1][2]

Adra co-wrote and co-directed the 2024 documentary film No Other Land with Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham and two other activists. The film captures the plight of the besieged community of Masafer Yatta, where Adra was raised, showing Israeli forces demolishing homes and forcibly removing families who have lived there for generations, claiming the land for military training purposes.[1][2] It premiered at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival and won the Panorama Audience Award for Best Documentary Film and the Berlinale Documentary Film Award.[3][4][5]

Career and activism

Adra is an activist and a volunteer photographer for B'Tselem. He works as journalist for online publications +972 Magazine and Local Call along with photojournalist Oren Ziv, who wrote the +972 Magazine article following the Channel 12 allegations made against al-Adra.[6][7][8][9]

In 2022, he was beaten while he was filming the IDF demolishing a structure that he had built,[6][10][11][12] and detained in harsh conditions after filming an attack by an Israeli army security coordinator in 2023.[13]

Channel 12 and HaKol HaYehudi false allegations

In 2021, the HaKol HaYehudi and Channel 12 news outlets accused al-Adra of setting fire to a building in the Hebron Hills (the West Bank) claiming that he tried to frame Jewish settlers and Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) soldiers for the incident.[14] The body camera footage used by Channel 12 instead shows that the fire was caused by a tear gas canister fired by the Israeli army, and al-Adra can be seen trying to put it out.[9] Since then, Channel 12 News and the right-wing media in Israel have failed to provide any evidence to support their claims against al-Adra, and the news channel has said it does not intend to investigate the incident further.[7]

No Other Land

Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham with their Berlinale award

In February 2024, the film No Other Land about the situation of Masafer Yatta that he co-wrote and co-directed with Israelis Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor and Palestinian Hamdan Ballal, premiered at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival and won the Berlinale Best Documentary film award and Panorama Audience Award for Best Documentary Film.[15][16][17] The film was also nominated at the 97th Academy Awards for the Best Documentary Feature Film.[18]

Personal life

Adra was born to father Nasser in At-Tuwani, Hebron Municipality, in the West Bank of Palestine. He lives in Masafer Yatta, Hebron.[19][20][21][22][23] Adra married in 2024 and has a daughter.[2]

On 3 February 2025, Adra was attacked and surrounded by masked Israeli settler extremists in Masafer Yatta.[24]

Notes

  1. ^ Given name also romanized as Basil, last name also romanized as Adraa.
  2. ^ Also romanized as Al-Adraa.

References

  1. ^ a b Garcia, Maria (Winter 2024). "Same Country, Different Rights". Cinéaste. Vol. 50, no. 1. New York. pp. 34–37, 66. ProQuest 3145231241.
  2. ^ a b c Buchanan, Kyle (February 19, 2025). "Inside the Oscar-Nominated Film That No Studio Will Touch". New York Times.
  3. ^ Abbatescianni, Davide (January 17, 2024). "The Panorama strand of the Berlinale to open with Levan Akin's Crossing". Cineuropa. Retrieved February 24, 2024.
  4. ^ Roxborough, Scott (February 24, 2024). "Berlin: Memories of a Burning Body, No Other Land Win Panorama Audience Awards". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved February 24, 2024.
  5. ^ Roxborough, Scott (February 24, 2024). "Mati Diop Doc Dahomey Wins Berlin Golden Bear". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved February 25, 2024.
  6. ^ a b "Israeli Soldiers Beat Palestinian Journalist Documenting West Bank Demolition". Haaretz. Retrieved May 12, 2022.
  7. ^ a b Ziv, Oren (October 7, 2021). "Israel's top news show falsely accuses +972 writer of framing settlers for arson". +972 Magazine. Retrieved May 12, 2022.
  8. ^ Krauss, Joseph (May 5, 2022). "Israel upholds expulsion order against West Bank hamlets". ABC News. Archived from the original on May 5, 2022. Retrieved May 12, 2022.
  9. ^ a b Lazaroff, Tovah (October 8, 2021). "Settlers versus Palestinians: 'This was a battle for our homes'". The Jerusalem Post. ProQuest 2580119767.
  10. ^ "Shireen Abu Akleh: Israël assassine de sang froid un symbole palestinien et arabe*". Leaders (in French). May 11, 2022.
  11. ^ Ali Shah, Hamza (May 11, 2022). "Israel Assassinated Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh". Jacobin. Retrieved May 12, 2022.
  12. ^ Adra, Basel [@basel_adra] (June 13, 2022). "#SaveMasaferYatta" (Tweet). Retrieved October 22, 2024 – via Twitter.It's my birthday today. I'm 26. My biggest wish, since I was a child, is to be free from occupation. Now as our community of Masafer Yatta is being destroyed, day by day, it's honestly hard to celebrate. Still, my wish remains: to remain. To have a future.
  13. ^ Shamir, Jonathan (July 17, 2023). "Israel Is Silencing Palestinian Journalists Exposing the Occupation". Haaretz. ProQuest 2838337127.
  14. ^ Gruner, Elhanan (May 10, 2021). "Exposure: 'Betzelem' activist is suspected of setting fire to a building and shouting 'the Jews set it on fire'" (in Hebrew). HaKol HaYehudi.
  15. ^ Abbatescianni, Davide (February 24, 2024). "Mati Diop's Dahomey bags the Berlinale Golden Bear". Cineuropa. Retrieved February 26, 2024.
  16. ^ "No Other Land". www.berlinale.de. Retrieved February 23, 2024.
  17. ^ "Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham by Conor Williams".
  18. ^ "The 97th Academy Awards". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. January 23, 2025. Archived from the original on January 23, 2025. Retrieved January 23, 2025.
  19. ^ Ziv, Oren; Abraham, Yuval (May 8, 2022). "תיעוד: חיילים מכים את כתב "שיחה מקומית" בעת סיקור אירוע". Local Call (in Hebrew). Retrieved May 12, 2022.
  20. ^ "'The world doesn't care when the victims are Palestinians, they will keep selling weapons to Israel,' says activist". Middle East Monitor. March 20, 2022. Retrieved May 12, 2022.
  21. ^ Cypel, Sylvain (2021). The State of Israel vs. the Jews. Other Press. ISBN 978-1-63542-097-5. ...Basil al-Adraa, an activist from the nearby village of at-Tuwani, reported that...
  22. ^ Anouar, Souad (May 6, 2022). "Israeli Supreme Court Legalizes Masafer Yatta Evictions". Morocco World News. Retrieved May 12, 2022.
  23. ^ ""No nos iremos": palestinos de Masafer Yatta prometen resistir al desalojo del Supremo israelí". France 24 (in Spanish). May 8, 2022. Retrieved May 12, 2022.
  24. ^ "Israel attacks Basel Adra, director of Oscar-nominated 'No Other Land' in West Bank". The New Arab. February 4, 2025.
Allikas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basel_Adra
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