On Saturday afternoon, a group of settlers from the illegal Havat Ma’on outpost near Adra’s village of At-Tuwani began trespassing in his olive grove, Adra told CNN.

Adra said they were attacked when they tried to confront them.

“The police, the army came when the settlers were attacking us,” Adra told CNN.

“They did not stop them. One of the settlers chased one of the solidarity activists, and he beat her on the ground. The soldiers were watching, didn’t do anything," the filmmaker said.

He said one of his brothers was rushed to a hospital after he was run over by a settler who was riding an ATV.

After the attack, the IDF “invaded” At-Tuwani, Adra said, searching his house for twenty minutes and looking through his wife’s phone.

“We’ve filed dozens of complaints against these same settlers for grazing their sheep among our olive trees,” Adra said. “We bring the police, and they do nothing.”

Who is Basel Adra?

Adra is a Palestinian film director, lawyer and journalist.

Adra co-wrote and co-directed the 2024 documentary film No Other Land with Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham and activists Hamdan Ballal and Rachel Szor.

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.

In 2025, the film won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film, making Adra the first Palestinian filmmaker to win an Oscar.