Summary:
- Israeli-Palestinian film “No Other Land” wins Oscar for Best Documentary Feature
- Film documents Palestinian struggle against home demolitions in Masafer Yatta
- Co-directors Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham call for peace and equality in acceptance speech
- Documentary faced distribution challenges but gained critical acclaim and awards
“No Other Land,” a collaborative effort between Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers, has won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 97th Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday. The film, which chronicles the struggle of Palestinians to protect their homes from demolition by Israel’s military, triumphed over four other nominees in a highly competitive category.
Produced between 2019 and 2023, “No Other Land” follows Palestinian activist Basel Adra as he documents the destruction of his hometown, Masafer Yatta, located at the southern edge of the West Bank. The Israeli military is demolishing the area to use as a training zone, despite protests from local residents.
Accepting the award, Adra expressed hope for his newborn daughter’s future, stating, “My hope to my daughter [is] that she will not have to live the same life I’m living now, always fearing settlers, violence, home demolitions and forcible displacements that my community is living and tasting every day under Israeli occupation.”
Co-director Yuval Abraham, an Israeli journalist who helped Adra amplify his story, emphasized the film’s message of unity: “We see each other: The atrocious destruction of Gaza and its people which must end. Israeli hostages, brutally taken in the crime of October 7th, which must be freed.”
The documentary has faced distribution challenges in the United States, requiring a one-week run at New York’s Lincoln Center in November to qualify for Oscar consideration. Despite these obstacles, “No Other Land” has garnered critical acclaim, winning awards at the Berlin International Film Festival and from the New York Film Critics Circle.
The film’s raw footage, captured by Adra’s personal camcorder, shows Israeli soldiers bulldozing a village school, filling water wells with cement, and shooting a local man during a protest, leaving him paralyzed. These scenes depict the harsh realities faced by Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, where more than 500,000 Israeli settlers live alongside approximately three million Palestinians under different legal systems.
Major human rights organizations have described the situation in the West Bank as apartheid, an allegation rejected by the Israeli government, which views the area as the historical and biblical homeland of the Jewish people.
The Oscar win for “No Other Land” brings international attention to the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the human rights issues at its core, potentially sparking further dialogue on the path to peace in the region.
