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YUVAL Abraham, an Israeli journalist, stood alongside his Palestinian activist friend, Basel Adra, as they received an Oscar for their documentary film "No Other Land" on Sunday, March 2, 2025. The documentary highlights the parallel realities in which both friends live - Abraham with his yellow Israeli number plate allowing him to travel anywhere, while Adra is confined to an increasingly narrow area for Palestinians.
In his speech, Abraham lamented the differing treatment. He referred to Basel as his brother, but they do not live equally. "We live in a regime where I am free under civil law and Basel is under military law that destroys his life and he cannot control," he said as quoted by Reuters.
The film, created over five years with journalists Rachel Szor and Hamdan Ballal, depicts Israeli soldiers demolishing homes and expelling residents to build military training areas and settlements on Palestinian communities.
Documentary Creation
About five years ago, Yuval and Szor visited the area where Adra and Ballal reside in Masafer Yatta, in the southern part of the occupied West Bank. Yuval and Rachel came for journalistic work. As they met more often, the four started to talk about the political situation.
Adra saw Abraham and Szor showing solidarity with the fate of Palestinians in the occupied territories. The two Israeli journalists opposed the occupation and the apartheid system. One day, Hamdan suggested they make a documentary to show what was happening there.
But they had no experience in making a documentary film. Eventually, they decided to travel together as part of their activism. "We made the film, took pictures, and wrote, and we thought it was very important to make this documentary to present to the audience, especially in the Western world," Adra said in an interview with Cineurope. According to Adra, people in the West must know what their governments are supporting and where their money and weapons are going.
Threatened with Death
This was not their first victory. In February 2024, the documentary also received an award at the Berlinale. The two had three minutes to speak, but a week later their speech at Berlinale, delivered by Abraham and Adra, continued to echo.
On stage, Abraham expressed his disappointment with the Apartheid policy of the Israeli government towards Palestinian citizens. "We are only 30 minutes apart, but I have the right to choose and Basel does not. I can move freely across the country, but Basel, like millions of other Palestinians, is trapped in the West Bank. The apartheid situation between us, this inequality, must end," he said, as quoted by El Pais.
The Berlinale hall erupted into applause, causing problems for the German Minister of Culture, Claudia Roth. For participating in the event, she faced calls for resignation. Her ministry surprisingly clarified on social media that the applause was "addressed to the Jewish-Israeli journalists and filmmakers," and not to the Palestinian person (Adra), as the Israeli people were "speaking in support of a political solution and peaceful coexistence in the region."
The issue has become so big that Abraham no longer speaks to the media. He told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that he has received dozens, even hundreds, of anonymous threatening messages. "I am a journalist and I have written things more critical than what I said in the speech, but I have never experienced anything like this. I am scared. It is very tense," he said.
Abraham once tweeted that far-right mobs came to his house the day before to look for him and threaten close family members, so they had to flee to another city at night. "I am still receiving death threats and had to cancel my return flight," he wrote.
Accused of Anti-Semitism
All this happened after the Israeli media and German politicians "unreasonably labeled" his speech "as anti-Semitic."
In November, Abraham told Middle East Eye that Germany's harsh, obsessive stance on pro-Palestinian behavior is making life increasingly difficult for Jews and Israelis like himself who want to see an end to the war in Gaza. "I am surprised by the reaction in Germany," Abraham said.
He thought Germany supported Israel and the Israeli people. However, in reality, they only support Israelis who believe in continuing the occupation and those who, to some extent, echo their government's policies.
The use of the term "anti-Semitic," according to him, is being misused by Germany not only to silence Palestinian critics of Israel, but also to silence Israeli people who support a ceasefire that would end the killings in Gaza and allow the release of Israeli hostages.
He also found it strange that the accusation was made, considering that his grandmother was born in a concentration camp in Libya, and most of his grandfather's family were killed in the Holocaust. He added: "I feel very angry that in 2024, German politicians have the audacity to use this term against me in a way that endangers my family."
Editor’s Choice: Palestine-Israel Film, 'No Other Land,' Wins Oscar 2025 for Best Documentary
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