JOHN W. NIXON ‘53 DISTINGUISHED POLICY FELLOWS PROGRAM

Marielena Hincapié, Esq.
Distinguished Immigration Fellow and Visiting Scholar
Cornell Immigration Law and Policy Program

Marielena Hincapié is a nationally respected leader, legal and political strategist, and a leading voice in the national immigration conversation. She was key in supporting youth leaders in creating and successfully implementing Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). She cofounded the Protecting Immigrant Families (PIF) coalition to address children and families' access to safety net programs. She is writing a forthcoming book Becoming America: A Personal History of A Nation’s Immigration Wars (Flatiron Books).

Join us for a screening and discussion of the documentary No Other Land, which recently won the Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary.

The film follows Basel Adra, a young Palestinian activist from Masafer Yatta, who has been filming and fighting his community’s expulsion by Israeli forces since childhood.

After he crosses paths with Yuval, an Israeli journalist who joins his struggle, the two work together to document the gradual destruction of Masafer Yatta, the largest single act of forced transfer ever carried out in the occupied West Bank. Their complex bond is haunted by the extreme inequality between them: while Basel lives under a military occupation and Yuval moves through the world unrestricted and free.

The film, made by a Palestinian-Israeli collective of four young activists between 2019 and 2023, was co-created as an act of creative resistance and a search for a path towards equality and justice.

The screening will be followed by a panel discussion reflecting on how what is happening in Palestine fits into global questions of dispossession, displacement, and land sovereignty.

Paul Kohlbry, Postdoctoral Associate in Department of Anthropology

Natalie Melas, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature

Sabrina Axster, Migrations Postdoctoral Fellow

Deborah A. Starr (moderator), Professor of Modern Arabic and Hebrew Literature and Film in the Department of Near Eastern Studies

The event is cosponsored by the Department of Near Eastern Studies, the Jewish Studies Program, and the Migrations Program, part of the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies, and the Mellon Foundation’s Just Futures Initiative.

Part of our "Doc Spots" series. Courtesy of Michael Tuckman Media. In Arabic, English, and Hebrew with English subtitles.