Basel Adra, co-director of the 2025 Academy Award winner for Best Documentary Feature, “No Other Land,” has told the Associated Press that his home was raided by soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces September 13 following alleged settler violence in his West Bank village.
Giving an on-camera interview to the AP, Adra is clearly free and not currently being detained by Israeli forces as was feared by his co-director Yuval Abraham who tweeted his concern about the situation. “Happening now: Israeli army raiding the house of oscar winner Basel Adra after Israeli settlers attacked his village earlier and beat up his family member,” Abraham tweeted September 13. “Soldiers could try to abduct Basel into one of Israel’s prisons which are effectively torture sites.”
Adra was not abducted and remains free.
However, the concern that he might be detained by the IDF apparently influenced Adra’s decision not to return to his home yesterday. These incidents have occurred in the wake of co-director Hamdan Ballal being beaten up by Israeli settlers in the weeks after “No Other Land” won the Oscar in March. That resulted in controversy, with Abraham accusing the Academy of not publicly supporting Ballal, who indeed was not mentioned in their original statement supporting artistic freedom. The Academy ultimately apologized.
A similar situation seemed to be unfolding September 13. Adra told the AP, “Soldiers invade [his West Bank village] Al-Tuwani after settlers attacked us on agricultural land. They invaded my home here in the activist space and my home up where my wife and my nine month old daughter were alone. They were searching in the house, they took the phone of my wife. They prevented other family members like my sisters, like my father, to be with my wife in the home – they detained them in the street. Israel, I think, is trying to attack and to shut down any influencer or journalist who speaks up against the occupation. In Gaza we see they precisely killing journalists. I have many messages, one of them for the governments and world leaders to take serious actions to stop the genocide in Gaza, to stop the occupation, and to influence and implement the international law and force Israel, putting sanctions against it until they respect international law.”
Adra also claimed that his brother had been beaten up by settlers during the attack.