The Israeli and Palestinian directors of No Other Land, a documentary on the Israeli military’s efforts to forcefully evict the Palestinian community of Masafer Yatta in the occupied West Bank, implored the world to stand up for Palestinian rights and ripped into U.S. foreign policy as a roadblock to peace while accepting the Oscar for best documentary on Sunday.
Co-director Basel Adra, a Palestinian activist from Masafer Yatta, in his acceptance speech said the documentary “reflects the harsh reality that we have been enduring for decades, and still resist, as we call on the world to take serious actions, to stop the injustice and to stop the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people.”
The Israeli and Palestinian directors of No Other Land, a documentary on the Israeli military’s efforts to forcefully evict the Palestinian community of Masafer Yatta in the occupied West Bank, implored the world to stand up for Palestinian rights and ripped into U.S. foreign policy as a roadblock to peace while accepting the Oscar for best documentary on Sunday.
Co-director Basel Adra, a Palestinian activist from Masafer Yatta, in his acceptance speech said the documentary “reflects the harsh reality that we have been enduring for decades, and still resist, as we call on the world to take serious actions, to stop the injustice and to stop the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people.”
No Other Land chronicles the yearslong struggles of Palestinians in Masafer Yatta, a collection of villages in the south of the occupied West Bank, as they contend with Israeli forces demolishing their homes as well as violent attacks from Jewish settlers. Israel has deemed the area a military training zone, and its highest court approved the evictions.
The documentary also looks at the complicated friendship that emerged between Adra and co-director Yuval Abraham, a Jewish Israeli journalist, as they documented the forced evictions. “Their tense onscreen friendship is part of what makes this project so special,” film critic Jordan Hoffman recently wrote of No Other Land for Foreign Policy.
No Other Land was made by both Israelis and Palestinians because “together our voices are stronger,” Abraham said on Sunday, before calling for an end to the “atrocious destruction” of Gaza and for all hostages “brutally taken” in the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, to be freed.
Abraham went on to say that when he looks at Adra, he sees “my brother, but we are unequal.”
“We live in a regime where I am free under civilian law and Basel is under military laws that destroy his life and he cannot control. There is a different path—a political solution without ethnic supremacy, with national rights for both of our people,” Abraham said. Taking direct aim at the U.S., Abraham added: “And I have to say, as I am here, the foreign policy in this country is helping to block this path.”
“Can’t you see that we are intertwined? That my people can be truly safe if Basel’s people are truly free and safe? There is another way. It’s not too late for life, for the living. There is no other way,” Abraham said.
No Other Land won the best documentary Oscar at a precarious moment for the Middle East, with the Gaza cease-fire in limbo as Israel blocks aid from entering the enclave and amid an escalating Israeli military operation in the occupied West Bank. It also came just weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump controversially proposed that Palestinians be removed from Gaza and for the United States to then “take over” and rebuild the coastal enclave.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank have been displaced in recent weeks amid the military operation there, which has seen Israeli tanks enter the territory for the first time in two decades. Israel says the operation, which has emptied out major refugee camps in the West Bank, is targeting militants in the territory.
In the face of the intensifying operation, U.N. chief António Guterres last week said he was “gravely concerned by the rising violence in the occupied West Bank by Israeli settlers and other violations, as well as calls for annexation.”
Trump’s return to the White House has been celebrated by far-right, pro-annexation politicians in Israel. The U.S. president, who has historically embraced policies in line with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s agenda, has not taken an explicit position on annexation but in early February said his administration would likely make an announcement on the matter in the near future.
Despite the critical acclaim surrounding No Other Land, it wasn’t picked up for distribution in the United States, which Abraham has attributed to politics. The Israeli government, which counts Washington as its top ally, has been critical of the documentary. Israel’s culture minister, Miki Zohar, in a post on X said the film’s Oscar win represents a “sad moment for the world of cinema.” Zohar, a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, said the documentary amplified narratives that “distort” Israel’s image.
Zohar suggested the documentary was “sabotage” against Israel, “especially in the wake of the October 7th massacre and the ongoing war.”
No Other Land was filmed between 2019 and 2023 but wrapped before the Oct. 7 attack, which saw roughly 1,200 killed in Israel and hundreds taken hostage. More than 48,000 have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, according to Palestinian authorities, and the U.S. contributed roughly $17.9 billion in military aid to Israel during the first year of the war.
