New Delhi: No Other Land, a documentary on the struggles of Palestinian residents of Masafer Yatta and the constant attempts by Israeli settlers and the army to take over the land and demolish Palestinian properties, has won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. The film was produced by four Israeli and Palestinian activists and journalists – Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor and Hamdan Ballal Al-Huraini.
Masafer Yatta is a collection of 19 Palestinian villages in the south of occupied West Bank.
Even after the documentary received widespread acclaim and was nominated for the Oscars, the producers pointed at that the situation on the ground was only worsening. “Despite the exciting success of the film in festivals and among journalists and audiences around the world, however, the situation here on the ground is deteriorating rapidly and the future looks bleak. Over the past 16 months, Israeli settlers and the military have taken advantage of the atmosphere of the war to reshape reality in Masafer Yatta in favor of settlers and their outposts, intensifying their efforts to displace us from our land. Even as I write this, the Israeli army is conducting a major demolition operation in the community of Khalet A-Daba, razing homes, toilets, solar panels, and trees,” Adra wrote last month.
It is no surprise, then, that the producers used the stage provided by the Oscar win to talk about the violence and suppression faced by the people of Palestine.
“About two months ago, I became a father, and my hope for my daughter is that she won’t have to live the same life I am living now – always fearing violence, home demolition and forceful displacement that my community, Masafer Yatta, is living and facing every day. No Other Land reflects the harsh reality that we have been enduring for decades, and still resist as we call on the world to stop the injustice, stop the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people,” Adra said.
“We made this film, Palestinians and Israelis, because together our voices are stronger. We see each other, [we see] the atrocious destruction of Gaza which must end, [we see] Israeli hostages taken brutally in the crimes of October 7 who must be freed. When I look at Basel [Adra], I see my brother, but we are unequal. We live in a regime where I am free, living under civilian law, and Basel is under military laws that destroy his life and he cannot control. There is a different path, a solution without ethnic supremacy, with national rights for both of our people. And I have to say as I am here, I must say that the foreign policy in this country [the US] is helping to block this path. Why? Can’t you see that we are intertwined? That my people can be truly safe if Basel’s people are truly free safe? There is another way. It’s not too late for life, for the living. There is no other way,” Abraham said after him.
Even before the Oscar win, the documentary has been screened in various parts of the world and awarded at film festivals. It has been celebrated for truly bringing to light what it means for Palestinians to live under the occupation. As Zainab Firdausi wrote in The Wire, “No Other Land captures how Palestinian villagers are policed in a language foreign to them, by soldiers foreign to them. It shows how, in the search for some kind of justice, they must submit themselves to the laws of their occupier. It demonstrates to us reasons why they might be distrusting of even well-meaning Israelis such as Yuval or Gideon Levy, clips of whose visit were included in the film. And it reveals the burdens that “homeland” brings with it in the face of a brutal occupation. In one scene, we see Basel discuss with Yuval fantastical plans to escape to the Maldives, knowing very well that he could never leave. Committing these instances to film is indispensable to our understanding of the human cost of the occupation.”
