BLOCKING THE PATH TO PEACE!! Oscar Winners Condemn US Foreign Policy
The filmmakers of the Oscar Winner used the Oscars platform to criticise the United States’ foreign policy for “helping block the path to peace”.
‘No Other Land’ Directors Condemn US Foreign Policy in Oscar Speech: ‘Blocking the Path to Peace’
‘No Other Land’, a film made by a Palestinian-Israeli collective which could find distribution in the US and was self-distributed instead, has won this year’s best documentary feature Oscar. Its filmmakers used the Oscars platform to criticise the United States’ foreign policy for “helping block the path to peace”.
The West Bank-based documentary, filmed between 2019 and 2023, captures the forced displacement of Palestinians from Masafer Yatta, an area in the occupied West Bank targeted by Israeli forces. It premiered at the Berlin Film Festival last year, where it won the Berlinale Documentary Award.
Accepting the Oscar to a standing ovation, co-director Basel Adra, who recently became a father, expressed his hopes for a better future for his daughter. “I hope her life will not be like mine – always fearing certain violence, home demolitions, and forced displacement.”
He continued, “Our film reflects the harsh reality that my people have 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, an Israeli filmmaker, emphasized the power of collaboration: “Palestinians and Israelis made this film together because together our voices are stronger. We see each other. The atrocious destruction of Gaza and its people must end.”
Addressing the disparity between their lives, he added, “When I look at Basel, I see my brother, but we are unequal. I am free under civilian law, but Basel lives under military laws that destroy his life.”
Criticizing U.S. foreign policy, he urged, “Can’t you see that we are intertwined? My people can only 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.”
