March 3, 2025 (EIRNS)—The documentary No Other Land (see the trailer here has won over 30 major awards from world film festivals and associations of film critics, but in the US it could not even arrange a film distributor. Even streaming platforms refuse to offer it (last year Netflix removed 24 Palestinian films from its archives). But despite these difficulties, it won an Oscar on March 2 at the Academy Awards in Los Angeles.
The film documents the Israeli military occupation, settler violence, and the ethnic cleansing against the small Palestinian community of Masafer Yatta in a rugged rural area in the southern West Bank. The film shows heart-breaking scenes of Israeli bulldozers destroying homes and schools and water wells being filled with cement to force the civilian population out, and to make way for an Israeli military training center. However, the film does not focus on scenes of terror, but rather explores the unlikely friendship that develops between an Israeli and Palestinian, both journalists who seek justice in Palestine. The message is not one of hate, but the possibilities generated in cooperation.
Masafer Yatta is the hometown of Palestinian activist Basel Adra, 28, and much of the film’s footage comes from his personal camcorder as he documents over 5 years how his community is being erased from the Earth. The film would become a joint venture with his Israeli friend and journalist Yuval Abraham. Making the film a true Palestinian and Israeli joint effort it also was co-directed with Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal and Israeli filmmaker Rachel Szor. The film’s production places it before Oct. 7, 2023.
During his speech at the Oscars, Abraham said, “When I look at Basel, I see my brother. But we are unequal. We live in a regime where I am free under civilian law and Basel is under military laws.” Adra called upon the world “to take serious actions to stop the injustice and to stop the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people.”
