No Other Land wins an Oscar! A moment of hope and solidarity
+972 Magazine’s editorial team sends its warmest congratulations to Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Hamdan Ballal, and Rachel Szor for winning an Academy Award for their film No Other Land in the best documentary category.
Basel is a long-time contributor to +972 who recently wrote for the magazine about the dissonance between the film’s growing success abroad while his community of Masafer Yatta in the southern West Bank continues to face erasure under Israel’s occupation; Yuval is a member of our team who has published severalgroundbreaking investigations in recent months for +972 and Local Call and has reported on Israel’s apartheid policies in the West Bank for many years; Hamdan, too, has documented for +972 the intensification of Israel’s efforts to expel his community, and wrote last year about the importance of this film to the people of Masafer Yatta; and Rachel’s photos have illustrated articles on our site multiple times in recent years.
Here are some highlights from their acceptance speeches at the ceremony in Los Angeles last night.
Basel Adra: “About two months ago, I became a father, and my hope to my daughter [was] that she will not have to live the same life I’m living now — always fearing settler violence, home demolitions, and forcible displacement 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 persists, as we call on the world to take serious actions to stop this injustice and to stop the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people.”
Yuval Abraham: “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, [who] 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 our people[s]. The foreign policy in this country is helping to block this path.
“Why? Can’t you see that we are intertwined? That my people can be truly safe [only] if Basel’s people are truly free and safe? It’s not too late for life, for the living. There is no other way.”
Today is a joyous day for our colleagues and friends, an important milestone in the struggle to save Masafer Yatta, and a symbol of hope in Israel-Palestine for all those who are part of the binational struggle for justice. We are immensely proud. Congratulations from the entire +972 team: Basel, Yuval, Hamdan, and Rachel!