No Other Land: Breaking Through the Noise
The ferocity of the backlash against ‘No Other Land’ reveals a discomfort with accountability, a resistance to the idea that the Palestinian experience deserves its own space to be seen & understood.
‘No Other Land’ has won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. The fact that this movie doesn’t even have a US distributor but now holds an Oscar is yet another irony in the tangled discourse that has defined Palestine’s reality for the past 76 years. Nonetheless, it’s colossal. The idea of the nation will always find ways to endure—and perhaps even rise on the Oscar stage—despite relentless efforts to erase it from both theaters and the land itself.
The initial shock and disbelief of hearing a Palestinian film announced as the winner quickly gave way to tears—for all of us who have spent the past 17 months witnessing and documenting the live-streamed genocide in Gaza. And then came the division. The heated debates over whether the film represents a victory or a step toward normalizing the oppression of Palestine.
A story.
‘No Other Land’ tells the story of the West Bank's Masafer Yatta community through the lens of Palestinian activist Basel Adra, and Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham, among others. Basel narrates his story through personal and guerilla-style footage, documenting the forced displacement of his community. Risking arrest or even death, he captures Israeli soldiers demolishing homes, schools, and playgrounds to clear land for military training zones—an ongoing reality he’s witnessed his entire life.
Studios and distributors in the United States have refused to pick up the film, despite it being the highest-grossing Oscar-nominated documentary.
Will winning the Oscar finally change that?
A crack in the narrative armor.
Anything a Palestinian person does, says, or achieves that reaches beyond their shattered communities and into the global stage serves as a window into the Zionist mindset. The moment the four creators picked up their Oscars, the predictable response came:
Despite their immense influence in Hollywood, Zionists still felt robbed because one—just one—film about Palestine, in a landscape largely devoid of Palestinian perspectives, received some attention.
If you keep insisting your assault on the Palestinian lands is about self-defense, not ethno-supremacy, why does the slightest recognition of Palestinian existence unsettle you?
Discomfort with accountability.
Propaganda & Co posted a brilliant thread breaking down why the Zionist outrage over this particular Oscar flooded the airwaves just minutes after it was awarded:
“Why are Zionists so PISSED off about this film? The anger displayed by Zionists when the Palestinian narrative gains traction reveals a deeper unease about the shifting tides of public discourse.
For decades, the Israeli perspective has dominated mainstream Western narratives, often framed as a story of survival, resilience, and moral clarity in the face of existential threats. But as films like ‘No Other Land’ break through the noise, offering glimpses into the lived realities of Palestinians, that monopoly on storytelling is being challenged—and the reaction is telling.
‘No Other Land’ isn’t a piece of Hamas propaganda, nor is it a sensationalized call to arms. It’s a documentary, grounded in the mundane yet brutal routines of occupation—home demolitions, land confiscation, and the systematic erosion of Palestinian agency—that Israel enacts daily.
This isn’t about ideology or political allegiance; it’s about bearing witness to a reality that has been outright denied in much of the discourse. The outrage from Zionists isn’t just about the film itself—it’s about what it represents: a crack in the narrative armor.
For years, criticism of Israel’s policies has been deflected with accusations of bias, antisemitism, or support for terrorism. But when a documentary like this gains attention, meticulously exposing the machinery of dispossession without needing to resort to rhetoric, those deflections lose their potency.
The anger, then, might stem less from the content and more from the fear that the world is finally listening to a voice that’s been shouting into the void for generations. The ferocity of the backlash against ‘No Other Land’ reveals a discomfort with accountability, a resistance to the idea that the Palestinian experience deserves its own space to be seen and understood.
It’s an unintended admission: the more exposure this narrative gets, the harder it becomes to dismiss it as mere propaganda. And that shift, however incremental, threatens the carefully curated image of a conflict where one side’s narrative has long overshadowed the other’s.”
On the Oscar stage, viewed by approximately 20 million people, these words were spoken aloud and heard by millions on the world’s biggest platform:
Settler violence
Home demolitions
Forceful displacements
Israeli occupation
Ethnic cleansing
Destruction of Gaza
Injustice and military laws
Ethnic supremacy
As Propaganda & Co pointed out:
”For decades, the Israeli perspective has dominated mainstream Western narratives, often framed as a story of survival, resilience, and moral clarity in the face of existential threats. But as films like ‘No Other Land’ break through the noise, offering glimpses into the lived realities of Palestinians, that monopoly on storytelling is being challenged.”
Isn't this move, then, a crucial turning point in dismantling the occupier’s narrative? The more exposure it receives, the harder it becomes to dismiss it as merely the opposing side’s propaganda.
Normalization.
It gets even more nuanced, and rightfully so. Many Palestinian people pointed out this movie would have never been allowed to be nominated—let alone win—without an Israeli attached to it.
Let’s get to the acceptance speeches first.
Basel Adra, Palestinian activist and the film's narrator, did great:
“Thank you to The Academy for the award. It's such a big honor for the four of us and everybody who supported us for this documentary. About two months ago I became a father and my hope to my daughter that she will not have to live the the same life I'm living now, always fearing settler's violence, home demolitions, and forceful displacements that my community Masafer Yatta is living and facing every day under the Israeli occupation. 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.”
Yuval Abraham, Israeli journalist, didn’t sit with me well:
“We made this 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 7th 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 laws that destroy his life and he cannot control. 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 am here, the foreign policy in this country is helping to block this path. And you know—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. There is no other way. Thank you!”
I’m grappling with a moral and ethical conflict.
It’s easy to appreciate Yuval, an Israeli who recognizes the ethnic supremacy of this people, given the raging, biblical derangement we see from Israelis all over social media who simply do not value Palestinian life and boast about their death and destruction. But are we really going to pat people on their backs for not being genocidal like the rest of their peers?
As I said, I’m conflicted:
Yuval called out the US veto power blocking the path to justice, as if Washington is acting against Israeli wishes, rather than doing their bidding. He mentioned October 7th and called for the release of the hostages, but failed to mention the thousands of Palestinian hostages held in Israeli jails without charge—whose release was the very purpose of the October 7th military operation: to use hostages as leverage for the release of Palestinian detainees. He’s quite literally the occupier, standing on that stage with the occupied. His presence on that land is why Palestinian people are being exterminated from that land.
Is he a liberal zionist? Isn’t that an oxymoron?
Nada Elia from Mondoweiss raised some good points:
“Yuval Abraham’s speech, on the other hand, was a masterpiece of liberal hasbara, saviorism, and “both sides-ism.” He spoke of “both peoples” being “intertwined,” and called for the release of the Israeli hostages in Gaza, stressing that freedom for Palestinians would ensure the safety of his people. Nowhere in his speech was there even a hint of the questioning of Zionism, of the fact that Israel, by its mere existence, dispossesses the Palestinian people.
Abraham seemed smug as he took the opportunity to criticize American foreign policy as a hindrance to peace in Palestine. Yet I couldn’t help but wonder what exactly he meant by “the foreign policy in this country [the United States] is blocking this path.” Is Israel yearning for an end to the occupation, for an end to the genocide, for a return of Palestinian refugees to their towns and villages, but the U.S. is saying “No. We want you to continue?”
At a historic moment when he had the world’s attention, Yuval Abraham could have mentioned Israel’s ongoing starvation of the people in Gaza, despite the ceasefire agreement. Instead, he spoke of the “crimes of October 7.” He could have called for Israel’s implementation of Phase Two of the ceasefire agreement—which does stipulate the release of the remaining Israeli hostages, and which Israel itself is reneging on—instead, he spoke of a vague “release of the Israeli hostages,” as if Hamas, rather than Israel, were responsible for the delay.
Cherished liberal buzzwords and concepts permeated Abraham’s speech: co-existence, not co-resistance, even though, in the documentary, Abraham actually does try to co-resist Israel’s land appropriation of Masafer Yatta.
The takeaway for many viewers was the need for safety for the Israelis, but only passing mention of “safety” for Palestinians. There was no mention, heaven forbid, of ending the blockade of Gaza, or even, ending the illegal occupation of the West Bank. The words settler colonialism, occupation, return, blockade, starvation, genocide, and apartheid, were not uttered.
“No Other Land” may have won a well-deserved Oscar, but Abraham’s speech was the epitome of liberal Zionist hasbara, stealing the limelight from Palestinian strugglers to center the “good Israeli savior.””
The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), mandated by the Palestinian BDS National Committee, also released a statement on their position regarding ‘No Other Land’.
Message vs. the normalization?
Does the message of this movie—challenging a century-long hasbara and revealing the reality of the occupation on the ground—justify the narrator’s choice of normalization in presenting it to the world? Is spreading the truth about the occupation and daily subjugation of the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank more important than the normalization used to bring it to the forefront?
I can't make that distinction from the comfort of my warm New York living room. It’s for the Palestinian community—both on the ground in Palestine and in the diaspora—to determine, and we must listen to and acknowledge all of their perspectives.
Lena Derhally, a Palestinian-American psychotherapist and author, posted an interesting take on her Instagram story:
“Palestinians in the arts are not faced with any good choices. Are we now calling out Mo Amer for streaming his show on Netflix (a Zionist entity) for normalization? Stop attacking Palestinians for finding ways to get their message and art into the world and in front of the larger audiences. Who here is going to call me out as a Palestinian author for self-publishing my book on Amazon or publishing another book with a traditional American publisher here? Stop acting like everyone makes purely ethical choices 100% of the time.”
May this film be the cog in the machinery of truth, justice, and, most importantly, accountability.
Where to watch No Other Land?
Try these streaming links: Amazon UK, Microsoft, Sky Store, AppleTV, but note that they might not be available in some regions.
