At Tuwani, Palestinian Territories  –  Armed with his camera, Oscar-winning Palestinian filmmaker Basel Adra has spent years in the occupied West Bank documenting what he describes as the impunity Israelis enjoy in their mistreatment of Palestinians. From his terrace, he points to the nearby Israeli settlement of Maon, just a short distance away. The view appears calm, but he said incidents involving settlers and Israeli soldiers take place almost daily. The situation has only worsened since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023, said Adra, the co-director of “No Other Land,” a documentary he made with Israeli filmmaker Yuval Abraham that this year won an Academy award. 

“The world allows Israelis — and gives them the impunity — to commit crimes,” the 29-year-old filmmaker told AFP at his home in the village of At Tuwani. In the nine months after accepting his Oscar in Hollywood, Adra has given score of interviews and captured hundreds of videos capturing settler violence allegedly carried out under army protection. 

“Dozens of Palestinian communities, villagers fled from their homes in this time due to the settler and occupation forces violence and attacks and killings,” Adra said. Taking a team of AFP journalists on a tour to illustrate the difficulties of life for Palestinians in the West Bank, Adra headed to the nearby Bedouin village of Umm al-Khair. To reach it, one must pass an Israeli settlement. On a wall, an inscription in Arabic warns: “No future for Palestine.” Since the war in Gaza began with Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel, settler and army attacks in the West Bank have killed around 1,000 Palestinians, according to the Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah. During the same period, Palestinian attacks in the same region have killed at least 43 Israelis, including soldiers, according to official Israeli figures.