Israeli-Palestinian film wins Oscar, directors assail US, global political stances

"No Other Land," a film about Israeli displacement of a Palestinian community, won the documentary feature film Oscar on Sunday, and its directors appealed to the world to help end the conflict and accused the United States of blocking a solution.

The film's co-directors, Palestinian activist Basel Adra and Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham, spent five years making the film, which shows Israeli soldiers tearing down homes and evicting residents to create a military training ground and the encroachment of Jewish settlers on the Palestinian community.

The documentary highlights the parallel realities in which the two friends live - Abraham with his yellow Israeli number plate that lets him travel anywhere, Adra 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," Adra said on taking the stage.

Standing beside his co-director, Abraham added: "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.

"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 law that destroys his life and he cannot control," Abraham said.

"There is a different path. A political solution without ethnic supremacy, with national rights for both of our people. And I have to say as I'm here, the foreign policy in this country is helping to block this path.

"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."

Israel's Culture Minister Miki Zohar, lamented the film's win as a "sad moment for cinema," because it presented what he described as a distorted view of Israel, still reeling from the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.

"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 on X.

Despite winning top prizes in Europe and the United States, the film has yet to reach a deal for U.S. distribution, Abraham told Deadline last month.

Asked why he thought U.S. distributors had passed on the film, Abraham told Deadline: “I believe it’s clear that it’s for political reasons. I hope that it will change." He said they decided not to wait on the theatrical release and released it in almost 100 theaters independently.



Reuters