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TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A film about Israeli displacement of the Palestinian community in the West Bank, ‘No Other Land’, won the documentary feature film at the Oscars on Sunday, March 2, 2025. The film’s four directors, who are from both Palestine and Israel, appealed to the world to help end the occupation of Palestine. They also accused the United States of blocking a solution to the conflict.
The film's directors, Palestinian activist Basel Adra and Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham, spent five years making the film. The film shows the Israeli soldiers demolishing homes and displacing residents in the occupied West Bank to make way for military training grounds and Jewish settlements in the Palestinian community.
The documentary highlights the parallel realities experienced by the two directors. Abraham can travel anywhere with his Israeli yellow license plate, while Adra is confined to a territory that only ever gets smaller for Palestinians.
“'No Other Land' 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 the Palestinian people," said Adra on stage, as quoted from Reuters.
‘No Other Land’ premiered at the Berlin Film Festival last year and won the Berlinale documentary award. The film was made between 2019 and 2023, focusing on the forced expulsion of Palestinian residents from their homes in Masafer Yatta, an occupied area in the West Bank targeted by Israeli forces.
In his speech, Adra said that he had just become a father and hoped his daughter's life would not be like his own—"always fearing certain violence, home demolitions, and forceful displacement."
Standing alongside his co-director, Abraham said that the film was made to amplify the voices of Palestinian and Israeli residents.
"We made this film, Palestinians and Israelis, because together our voices are stronger. We see each other, the atrocious destruction of Gaza and its people which must end, the Israeli hostages brutally taken in the crime of October 7, which must be freed," said Abraham.
Abraham pointed out the inequality he sees when comparing himself to Adra. Abraham lives under civilian law, while Adra is under Israeli military law that destroys his life.
Abraham emphasized that the divergent paths of Israel and Palestine must end with a political solution without ethnic supremacy by recognizing the national rights of both people.
"And I have to say as I'm here, the foreign policy in this country (U.S.) is helping to block this path," Abraham said.
"And why? 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."
US President Donald Trump's call last month for Palestinians to emigrate from Gaza, including to Egypt and Jordan, has been widely condemned in the Middle East and beyond for being deeply destabilizing.
However, Israeli Minister of Culture Miki Zohar lamented the film's victory as a "sad moment for cinema." He judged the film as presenting what he described as distorted views about Israel, which is still reeling from Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
"Freedom of expression is an important value, but using defamation of Israel as an international promotional tool harms the state of Israel, and after the October Seventh massacre and the ongoing war, it is doubly painful," Zohar said to X.
In an interview with Deadline last month, Abraham said that despite winning the top prize in Europe and the United States, the film has not reached an agreement for distribution in the US.
When asked why he thinks US distributors are not showcasing the film, Abraham said: "I believe it’s clear that it’s for political reasons. I hope that it will change."
Abraham and Adra decided not to wait on theatrical releases and to independently screen ‘No Other Land’ in nearly 100 theatres due to high demand in the U.S.
Editor’s Choice: Palestine-Israel Film, 'No Other Land,' Wins Oscar 2025 for Best Documentary
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