By Nurah Tape – The Palestine Chronicle 
Palestinian journalist Basel Adra dedicates Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land to Masafer Yatta’s struggle against Israeli ethnic cleansing, urging the world to take action.
The Palestinian co-director of a film that won an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature has urged the world to take action “to stop the ethnic cleansing” of his people.
“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 Palestinian people,” Basel Adra, a Palestinian activist and journalist from the occupied West Bank town of Masafer Yatta, said in an acceptance speech at the 97th Academy Awards on Sunday.
As filmmaker Basel Adra collected Palestine’s first ever Oscar, he demanded the world take action against Israel’s occupation of his land.
“No Other Land” tells the story of decades of Israeli violence and forced expulsions against his community in Masafer Yatta. pic.twitter.com/dRdxzhr5Xp
— AJ+ (@ajplus) March 3, 2025
Adra directed the 2024 film, No Other Land, with fellow activists Palestinian Hamdan Ballal and Israelis Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor.
Highlighting Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, the film centers on the struggle against the forced displacement of Palestinian families by the Israeli army through home demolitions in Masafer Yatta in the southern part of the occupied territory along with attacks from illegal Jewish settlers.
“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 am living now,” Adra noted. “Always fearing setters’ violence, home demolitions and forcible displacement that my community in Masafer Yatta is living and facing every day under the Israeli occupation.”
Risks of Filming
The powerful film covers a four-year period, from 2019 to 2023, of life under occupation in the town.
In an interview with Democracy Now, Adra said the goal for producing No Other Land was “not the award itself, but … to get to the people’s hearts. Because we want people to see the reality of what is going on in my community of Masafer Yatta, in all the West Bank and the daily life under this brutal occupation.”
Basel Adra, the co-director of Oscar-winning documentary “No Other Land,” says his intention with the film was “not the award itself but … to get to people’s hearts.”
He wants the world to see what is happening in his community of Masafer Yatta in the West Bank. pic.twitter.com/Ju8vqAaZes
— Democracy Now! (@democracynow) March 3, 2025
Adra explained that there were many risks involved in making the film such as his home being invaded and his cameras confiscated by Israeli soldiers.
“And I was physically attacked in the field when I was going around and filming these crimes,” he continued.
No US Distributor
Despite the film’s success at the Oscars, and having been “picked up for distribution in 24 countries,” No Other Land could not find a US distributor “due to its subject matter,” according to the IMDb website.
‘NO OTHER LAND’ just won Best Documentary at the Oscars. After October 7th, the co-director of the film, Basel Adra, welcomed me to his West Bank home in Masafar Yatta. His cousin was shot in the stomach by militarized settlers just weeks before. pic.twitter.com/VGuFbndodA
— Jeremy Loffredo (@loffredojeremy) March 3, 2025
Co-director Yuval Abraham, an Israeli investigative journalist, said in his acceptance speech that when he looks at Adra he sees “my brother, but we are unequal.”
“We live in a regime where I am free under civilian law and Basel is under military laws that destroy his life and he cannot control,” Abraham said.
Israeli Criticism
The film’s win has been slammed by Israel’s Culture Minister, Miki Zohar, as a misrepresentation of Israel’s “image” in the world.
”The Oscar win for the film ‘No Other Land’ is a sad moment for the world of cinema. Instead of presenting the complexity of Israeli reality, the filmmakers chose to amplify narratives that distort Israel’s image vis-à-vis international audiences,” Zohar said on X.
The Oscar win for the film “No Other Land” is a sad moment for the world of cinema. Instead of presenting the complexity of Israeli reality, the filmmakers chose to amplify narratives that distort Israel’s image vis-à-vis international audiences. Freedom of expression is an…
— Miki Zohar מיקי זוהר (@zoharm7) March 3, 2025
He added that freedom of expression was “an important value, but turning the defamation of Israel into a tool for international promotion is not art—it is sabotage against the State of Israel, especially in the wake of the October 7th massacre and the ongoing war.”
“This is precisely why we passed a reform in state-funded cinema—to ensure that taxpayer money is directed toward works of art that speak to the Israeli audience, rather than an industry that builds its career on slandering Israel on the global stage,” Zohar continued.
‘Military Training Ground’
The film’s website describes Masafer Yatta as “a beautiful mountainous region dotted with twenty ancient Palestinian villages, on the Southern edge of the West Bank.”
We created a website for No Other Land with all screening dates in the United States. It would mean a lot to me if you share it and go to watch the film, especially now. https://t.co/UdAAXKzIp5
— Basel Adra (@basel_adra) February 12, 2025
In 1980, the Israeli military declared the land of Masafer Yatta a “closed military training” zone – meaning it was officially declared off limits for Palestinians, the website states.
“As later revealed in two secret Israeli state documents, Ariel Sharon, former Israeli Prime Minister, then Agricultural Minister, explained at the time that this was done to displace the villages and allocate their land to Israeli settlements,” it notes.
‘Loss of Land, Loss of Community’
Adra was born in one of these villages in 1996. Three years later, in 1999, the military ordered all Palestinians living in Masafer Yatta to leave, “so soldiers could use their land as a military training ground.”
“Our film is the first documentary to shed light on the systematic policy of forced expulsion through home demolitions,” it notes.
🚨🚨Another devastating morning: The occupation army stormed Masafer Yatta about two hours ago. They have demolished four houses so far, and the destruction is still ongoing.#StopEthnicCleansing https://t.co/JZOxizwNQY pic.twitter.com/nHDSuskQ4q
— Basel Adra (@basel_adra) February 18, 2025
“When homes are destroyed, families in Masafer Yatta have nowhere to go, they can either rebuild, become homeless, or rent houses in crowded Palestinian cities where there is no space for grazing sheep and cultivating land.
“The loss of land is thus a loss of community and a way of life – they stop working as farmers.”
No Other Land, a co-production between Palestine and Norway, had its world premier at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival in 2024, winning the Panorama Audience Award for Best Documentary Film. It also featured at several other film festivals including the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival and the New York Film Festival.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
– Nurah Tape is a South Africa-based journalist. She is an editor with The Palestine Chronicle.
