LOS ANGELES: 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.”

Published in Dawn, March 4th, 2025