DaysofPal- The Palestinian documentary “No Other Land” won the 97th Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
The film documents the struggles of Palestinians in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, amid repeated attacks by the Israeli occupation.
Produced between 2019 and 2023 and directed by Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham (30) and Palestinian activist Basel Adra (29), the film follows activist Basel Adra as he risks arrest to document the destruction of his hometown, Masafer Yatta, at the southern edge of the West Bank, which Israeli soldiers are tearing down to use as a military training zone.
“No Other Land reflects the harsh reality we have endured for decades,” Adra said after accepting the award on the stage of the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles.
“We continue to resist and call on the world to take serious action to end the injustice and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.”
“About two months ago, I became a father, and my hope to my daughter is that she will not have to live the same life I’m living now, always fearing settlers, violence, home demolitions, and forcible displacements that my community is living and tasting every day under Israeli occupation,” said Adra.
Abraham also spoke on stage, emphasizing the power of joint Palestinian-Israeli voices.
“We see each other: the atrocious destruction of Gaza and its people, which must end. Israeli hostages, brutally taken in the crime of October 7th, which must be freed,” he said.
Abraham criticized the Israeli regime that destroys Adra’s life and said there is a different path, a “political solution without ethnic supremacy, with national rights for both of our people.”
But the United States’ foreign policy is helping block that path, he said.
“Can’t you see that we’re intertwined and 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. There is no other way,” he added.
The most recent prominent honor that No Other Land has received is the Oscar on Sunday. It also won the audience award and documentary film award at the Berlin International Film Festival in February 2024, as well as the New York Film Critics Circle award for Best Non-Fiction Film.
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