Basel Adra (also Basil and also Al-Adra or Al-Adraa, Arabic: باسل عدرا or باسل العدرا; born June 13, 1996 in the West Bank) is a Palestinian activist and journalist. In 2021, he was falsely accused of framing the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). In 2022, while he filmed the IDF demolishing a structure that he built, he was beaten.[1][2]
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.[11][12][13]
Channel 12 and HaKol HaYehudi false allegations
In 2021, the HaKol HaYehudi and Channel 12 news outlets falsely 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. 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. 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.[1]
On May 8, 2022, he was beaten by IDF forces while reporting on IDF soldiers dismantling a structure that he built.[13][14][15]
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, premiered at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival and won the Berlinale Best Documentary film award and Panorama Audience Award for Best Documentary Film.[16][17][18]
^Adra, Basel (13 June 2022). "#SaveMasaferYatta". X (formerly Twitter). Retrieved 22 October 2024 – via
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.— #SaveMasaferYatta (@basel_adra) June 13, 2022
^Cypel, Sylvain (2021). The State of Israel vs. the Jews. Other Press. ISBN978-1-63542-097-5. ...Basil al-Adraa, an activist from the nearby village of at-Tuwani, reported that...
