Issa Amro is a Palestinian human rights defender: Our lives are blighted by illegal settlements, and 22 more have just been approved. Unless Israel is held to account, we will be erased

Tents set up by Israeli settlers near the West Bank village of Bruqin, west of Salfit, 23 May 2025. Photograph: Alaa Badarneh/EPA

I told the truth about the West Bank and was threatened and assaulted.

Now I’m relying on you to act

Issa Amro

Each of the 22 illegal settlements approved by Israel last week is another nail in the coffin of the peace process, hammered in by the complicity of western governments and corporations. Israeli settlements are not benign civilian neighbourhoods – they are primary instruments of dispossession, control and apartheid. Settlements are closed militarised zones on Palestinians’ stolen land, cutting off our access to our resources, our farms, our schools, our jobs and each other. Palestinian lands rapidly shrink, our livelihoods are devastated, our rights are systematically violated and our identity is undermined.

Western lawmakers look on, expressing commitment to peace through a two-state solution but choosing to do nothing to achieve this goal. Instead, their policies and inaction enable yet further settlement activity.

In the West Bank we live in an obvious two-tier system, yet most lawmakers continue to shun the word “apartheid” despite Palestinian, Israeli and international human rights organisations concurring on its accuracy and the international court of justice (ICJ) reaffirming it last July. The Settlers, the BBC documentary by Louis Theroux, helped expose this reality, showing me being prevented from even walking on the same streets as Israelis in the neighbourhood of Hebron, where I was born.

In response to the documentary, Israeli settlers and soldiers broke into my yard, vandalised it and assaulted me. Soldiers made no arrests but instead threatened to arrest me if I filed a complaint. Then one morning at 4am, young settlers made a bonfire on private Palestinian land outside my home and chanted that they hoped to see me killed. One individual showed up right in front of my house in army fatigues and with a semi-automatic rifle to intimidate me. Settlers then stole my pan-African flag, given to me by Black Lives Matter, and burned it among a pile of Palestinian flags.

It is the same story in nearby Masafer Yatta, featured not only in The Settlers but also in the Oscar-winning film No Other Land. Directors Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham called for interventions last week to help stop its destruction, and co-director Hamdan Ballal was detained and beaten in reprisal for its production.

The ICJ found Israel responsible for the crime of apartheid, yet western leaders bite their tongues. It found that not only Israel’s settlements but also its whole occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip are unlawful, and that the international community is obliged to help dismantle the settlements, evacuate the settlers and end the occupation as quickly as possible. Why are western leaders inert?

It seems that western governments would rather undermine the international justice system than hold Israel to account... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/03/israeli-settlements-west-bank-international-law-illegal

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ACCEPTANCE SPEECHES: NO OTHER LAND Accepts the Oscar for Documentary Feature Film !!!

ACCEPTANCE SPEECHES The Oscar for Documentary Feature Film goes to NO OTHER LAND! Congratulations to Basel Adra, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal and Yuval Abraham on taking home the Oscar. See more Oscar acceptance speeches and highlights on Oscars.com.

Oscars 2025: The winner for best documentary feature [NO OTHER LAND] still has no U.S. distribution... ‘No Other Land’ Oscar winners call for a different path on Israeli-Palestinian conflict

NPR: The 2025 Oscars: Heavy on speeches, light on politics, and one big winner

https://www.npr.org/2025/03/03/nx-s1-5307159/oscars-winners-2025-anora-sean-baker-mikey-madison-zoe-saldana

In January, Justin Chang wrote that No Other Land "brings us into Masafer Yatta, a community of Palestinian villages in the Israeli-occupied southern West Bank, which is being bulldozed by the Israeli military to make room for a tank training ground." He also said the film, made by a team of Palestinian and Israeli filmmakers, was "the most powerful nonfiction film [he] saw in 2024." Then, as now, it lacked U.S. distribution; as of mid-February, the filmmakers were self-distributing to a few movie theaters. The filmmakers spoke powerfully from the Oscar stage about not only the destruction depicted in the film, but also their frustration with U.S. foreign policy. It is now almost certainly the most decorated film of last year not to be widely available in the United States.

No Other Land

“No Other Land” tells the story of the continued demolition by Israeli authorities of Masafer Yatta, a collection of villages in the Hebron mountains of the West Bank.

Antipode Films

Palestinian and Israeli filmmakers team up to create 'No Other Land'

At Oscars, 'No Other Land' co-directors call for national rights for Palestinians

CNN: Palestinian and Israeli filmmakers make defiant speech after winning best documentary Oscar

Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal, Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham accept the Documentary Feature Film award for "No Other Land" onstage during the 97th Annual Oscars at Dolby Theatre on March 02, 2025 in Hollywood, California. Kevin Winter/Getty Images

A joint Israeli-Palestinian team which made a film chronicling the eviction of Palestinians from their homes in the occupied West Bank delivered a passionate speech calling out injustices faced by Palestinians on Sunday night after they won the Oscar for best documentary.

“No Other Land” tells the story of the continued demolition by Israeli authorities of Masafer Yatta, a collection of villages in the Hebron mountains of the West Bank where Basel Adra, one of the directors, lives with his family.

The documentary follows the Israeli government’s attempt to evict the villagers by force, having claimed the land for a military training facility and firing range in 1981. Viewers see the local playground being torn down, the killing of Adra’s brother by Israeli soldiers, and other attacks by Jewish settlers while the community tries to survive... READ MOREhttps://www.cnn.com/2025/03/03/entertainment/no-other-land-palestine-israel-oscar-win-intl-hnk/index.html

‘No Other Land’ Oscar winners call for a different path on Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Basel Adra, from left, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal, and Yuval Abraham accept the award for best documentary feature film for “No Other Land” during the Oscars on Sunday, March 2, 2025, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

The Hill

The filmmakers behind ‘No Other Land,’ which won the Oscar for best documentary, called for a different path forward to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in their acceptance speech Sunday.

“There is a different path, a political solution without ethnic supremacy, with national rights for both of our people,” said Israeli filmmaker Yuval Abraham, in his acceptance speech.

“And I have to say, as I am here, the foreign policy in this country is helping to block this path,” Abraham continued, knocking President Trump’s approach to foreign policy.

The film is a collaboration between Israelis and Palestinians, and it follows activist Basel Adra as he documents the destruction of his hometown at the southern edge of the West Bank, which Israeli soldiers are tearing down to use as a military training zone, according to The Associated Press. Adra then befriends a Jewish Israeli journalist to help tell his story.

“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, which must be freed,” Abraham said on stage.

“When I look at Basel, I see my brother, but we are unequal,” he continued. “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.” .... READ MORE https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/5172274-no-other-land-oscar-winners-call-for-a-different-path-on-israeli-palestinian-conflict/

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No Other Land directors criticise US as they accept documentary Oscar: ‘US foreign policy is helping block the path’ to peace

Self-distributed film about Israeli displacement of a Palestinian community beat out Porcelain War and Sugarcane

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/mar/03/no-other-land-wins-best-documentary-feature-oscar

Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham in No Other Land. Photograph: Antipode Films

No Other Land premiered at the Berlin film festival last year where it won the Berlinale documentary award. The film was made between 2019 and 2023 and focuses on the steady forced displacement of Palestinians from their homes in Masafer Yatta, a region in the occupied West Bank targeted by Israeli forces.

Speaking to a standing ovation, the film-makers thanked the Academy before co-director Basel Adra said he had recently become a father and hoped his daughter’s life would not be like his – “always fearing certain violence, home demolitions and forced displacement”.

He continued by saying his film reflected “the harsh reality” that his fellow Palestinians had endured for many years, “as we call on the world to take serious action to stop the injustice and stop the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people”.

Co-director Yuval Abraham then took to the stage to say that Palestinians and Israelis had made the film together “because together our voices are stronger. We see each other the atrocious destruction of Gaza and its people must end.

“Israeli hostages brutally taken in the crime of October 7 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 but Basel has to live under military laws that destroy his life and he cannot control.

He continued: “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.

“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.” ...READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/mar/03/no-other-land-wins-best-documentary-feature-oscar

No Other Land’ is a shocking look at Palestinian life under occupation - a documentary about the systemic demolition of Palestinian homes in the West Bank

 Movie Review 

By  MARK KENNEDY

AP News Updated 2:56 PM EST, February 5, 2025

The irony shouldn’t be lost on anyone that “No Other Land,” a documentary about the systemic demolition of Palestinian homes in the West Bank, cannot find a cinematic home, either with a distributor or a major U.S. streamer.

Producers have opted to self-distribute this powerful, pointed look at Israel’s policies in seized land despite the movie earning an Oscar nomination and wins at the Berlin International Film Festival, Gotham Awards and Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards. “No Other Land” is, in its nature, a piece of advocacy. There are no both-sidesing explored here. The filmmakers — a Palestinian-Israeli collective of four directors — make it clear they hope documenting their plight will get the United States to pressure Israel to stop the destruction.

The documentary is largely told from the perspective of Basel Adra, an activist born in Masafer Yatta, a collection of villages in the southern mountains of the occupied West Bank. The Israelis have ordered Palestinians off the land to make room for a military training ground.

Shot between 2019 and 2023 — filming ended before the Israel-Hamas war exploded — the bulldozers arrive and never stop, protected by soldiers and ripping through simple concrete homes. The residents retreat to caves, albeit with high-def TV connections. Then they try to rebuild, often under the stealth of night. Then the bulldozers return.

“They destroy us slowly. Every week, a home,” goes the narration. “Every week a new family must decide: Endure, or leave their land.”

Adra and Palestinian co-writer and co-director Hamdan Ballal are joined by an Israeli journalist, Yuval Abraham, who arrives in Masafer Yatta with the cinematographer Rachel Szor. Abraham is asked point blank on his arrival: “What do you think about what your country is doing to us?” His answer: “I think it’s a crime.”

It is a wrenching movie to see: Soldiers, with vague permission from a court that Palestinians have no say in, push old women and children, not answering their pleas to stop and merely waving away residents whose families have lived in the region since the 1830s. The residents can’t vote and their license plates set them apart from Israelis. They’re hoping enough likes on social media can change their plight.... READ MORE  https://apnews.com/article/no-other-land-documentary-review-c46bf4fa42f2fad4fecb16846b2c2684

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