Students and Community members gathered at the Kinoteca Screening Room on Friday and Saturday to watch “No Other Land” and raised over $1,5000 in support of Palestine.
“No Other Land” directed by a team of Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers: Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Basel Adra, and Hamdan Ballal, documents the ongoing destruction of ancestral Palestinian land and homes in Masafer Yatta, a community in the Southern West Bank. Families’ homes are continually demolished in order for the area to be turned into an Israeli military firing zone for the Israeli Defense Force. Local Palestinian activist Basel Adra is joined by Yuval Abraham, an Israeli journalist, as they both attempt to report on the continued forced displacement of Palestinians.
Both screenings were well-attended, necessitating overflow seating to accommodate everyone in Kinoteca. Before the screening, students donated art, zines, t-shirts, and food sold to fundraise for the cause.
“It’s a good cause and I felt compelled to support,” said a junior, who donated a raffle for her to make a dress or tattoo for the winner. She had already seen the documentary before but was excited to see it again.
The money raised by students will be going to The Sameer Project, a Palestinian-led aid initiative raising money for food, water, and supplies in the war-torn Gaza Strip. Since October 7th, 2023 when Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people in Southern Israel and took 250 hostages, Israel has waged a brutal war in the Gaza that many international human-rights groups have said constitutes a genocide. Over 50,000 Gazans have been killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
One of the organizers, a senior, says she expected campus to support the screening but didn’t anticipate the level of response. “We don’t really do protests or stuff like that here because there is much more of a general agreement [on Palestine] but there’s still a lack of action at the same time.” The organizer, who is Jewish, said she didn’t fear being targeted for putting on the screening but felt a responsibility to bring awareness to the Palestinian cause on-campus in the middle of ongoing violence and genocide in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
Despite winning Best Documentary at the 97th Academy Awards, “No Other Land” lacks an official distributor in the United States which has made obtaining and watching the film difficult. Independent Cinemas that show the film have been threatened with closures over accusations that the film is anti-semetic.
Another junior spoke about how they didn’t know much about the film before seeing it but were excited to support the film and see it. “There’s a lot of campuses right now that are shutting down this kind of movement, this kind of expression,” they said, “I think it’s really great that we’re gathering together like this.”
Yuval Abraham and Basel Adra continue to cover Israeli apartheid and Human Rights violations in +972 Magazine, an English language Israeli-Palestinian News Outlet. Soon after returning to the West Bank, Hamdan Ballal was attacked by Israeli Settlers—citizens of Israel who live in the West Bank in Violation of International Law— and was detained by the IDF. The destruction of Palestinian homes in Masafer Yatta is ongoing.
Overall, after the event, the organizers hope Bennington’s interest and activism for Palestine will continue with more fundraising efforts and consciousness-raising across the campus: “Knowing that people are not alone and that people care. Being aware of the fact that it’s more than just a single event situation. You have to keep talking about it and keep being aware.”
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