Why is America afraid of ‘No Other Land’?

The Israeli-Palestinian co-production documentary "No Other Land" has won the Academy Award for Best Documentary. Since its release in 2024, the film has garnered 45 awards, including Best Documentary at the 2024 European Film Awards, the 2024 Berlin International Film Festival, and the 2024 Gotham Awards. This Oscar is the first for a Palestinian film.

The film has received widespread critical acclaim and five-star reviews from international media and has been screened globally, with independent screenings in the United States consistently selling out. However, no American distributor is willing to release the film nationwide due to its subject matter: Palestine. The documentary tells the story of the Palestinian community in Masafer Yatta, near Hebron in the southern occupied West Bank, an area that the Israeli army has declared a "military zone."

Under this pretext, Israeli soldiers and illegal settlers routinely harass local residents and destroy their homes, leaving them homeless. The story is told through the perspectives of co-directors Basel Adra, a Palestinian activist, and Yuval Abraham, an Israeli journalist. This truthful and heartbreaking portrayal of Israel's ongoing crimes clearly frightens distributors.

The distributors' fear clearly demonstrates the magnitude of the campaign to erase Palestine in the United States, impacting all aspects of public life – from education to media, to arts and film. Of course, anti-Palestinian censorship is nothing new. Since 1948, Palestinian culture and history have continually faced attempts at erasure as Israel tries to justify its land grabs by claiming that the Palestinian people do not exist and have no right to their land. This narrative has also dominated public perception in Western countries, most importantly the United States, which has supported Israel throughout its existence.

This film tells the story together by a Palestinian and an Israeli. In the documentary, we hear not only Adra's voice telling what is happening in Palestine, but also Abraham's voice. As the latter acknowledged in his acceptance speech at the Oscars: "Together, our voices are stronger." Indeed, if the film had been made entirely by Palestinians, it might have been labeled as biased and struggled to gain the same level of global attention. Having an Israeli co-director may have opened some doors, but it also made it more "dangerous."

Abraham said in his speech: "When I look at Basel, I see my brother, but we are unequal. We live in a situation where I am living under civil law, and Basel is living under military law that is destroying his life and he has no say in it. There is a different way. A political solution without apartheid." Clearly, Israelis like Abraham expressing opposition to apartheid and occupation are not tolerated. It does not fit the mainstream narrative that Israel is a moral compass and that all Palestinians only want to eliminate all Jews.

Despite the challenges, "No Other Land" has achieved remarkable success. In order to allow more American audiences to see the film, the filmmakers chose to self-distribute it in select theaters. To find out where the film is playing, you can visit its website. "No Other Land" is a powerful film that Americans must watch. As Adra pointed out in a recent interview with "Democracy Now," we have a responsibility. Our tax dollars are funding the destruction of his community, and that destruction has only accelerated in the past year.

Weeks before winning the Oscar, Adra wrote on social media: "Anyone who cares about 'No Other Land' should care about what is actually happening on the ground... Masafer Yatta is disappearing before my eyes." Americans must take action.