“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.
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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.
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“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.”
U.S. President Donald Trump’s call last month for Palestinians to emigrate from Gaza, including to Egypt and Jordan, has been widely condemned across the Middle East and beyond as deeply destabilizing.
Here’s how social media users reacted to the win
The filmmakers of ‘NO OTHER LAND’ accepting their #Oscar win
“It reflects the harsh reality that we have been enduring for decades and still persists as we call to stop the injustice and stop the ethnic cleansing of Palestine” pic.twitter.com/dQVimRUGAc
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) March 3, 2025
no other land winning in a room full of zionist pic.twitter.com/JZHUUT422B
— gem (@pipravy) March 3, 2025
I am so happy No Other Land won for many reasons
The movie is genuinely very good
The speech was fantastic
And it’s annoying the fuck out of the Zionists pic.twitter.com/eSIa7yP2DH
— Sarah (@Sarahjdublin) March 3, 2025
NO OTHER LAND WON AND WITH GAL GADOT IN THE AUDIENCE NO LESS OH MY GOD FREE PALESTINE!!!!!! #OSCARS pic.twitter.com/70mCWDwID0
— 🙁 (@lostzeitgeist) March 3, 2025
Despite winning an Oscar, ‘No other land’ has NOT been able to find distribution in the US because Israel doesn’t like it and the media companies are subservient to them. pic.twitter.com/nLvjfLj4JM
— ADAM (@AdameMedia) March 4, 2025