A ‘liberal Zionist’ filmmaker wins Oscar for equating colonizer with colonized

By Alireza Akbari

'No Other Land', directed by Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham, won the 'Best Documentary Feature' award on Sunday at the 97th Academy Awards in Hollywood, Los Angeles.

After the presenter opened the envelope and announced the film as the winner, Adra, Abraham, photographer Hamdan Ballal, and cinematographer Rachel Szor triumphantly appeared on the stage.

Standing before the audience, Adra, a Palestinian native of Masafer Yatta in the occupied West Bank, took a deep breath before speaking. Addressing the crowd, he dedicated his words to his newborn daughter, expressing hope that she would not have to live the life like him under Israeli occupation.

"About two months ago, I became a father, and I hope my daughter will not have to live the same life I'm living now—always feeling the violence of settlers and witnessing home demolitions," he said.

The film sheds light on the struggles of Palestinian communities in Masafer Yatta as they resist forced displacement by Israeli occupation forces and settlers, offering a portrayal of their daily reality.

The documentary follows Adra, a young Palestinian activist who has been resisting the forced displacement of his people since childhood.

Through his lens, 'No Other Land' captures the gradual ethnic cleansing of villages in his homeland, where Israeli occupation forces demolish homes and expel Palestinian residents under the pretext of establishing a military training zone.

The film starkly contrasts Adra’s life -- marked by relentless oppression and violence -- with that of his Israeli collaborator, Abraham, who enjoys security and freedom.

By weaving personal narratives with broader socio-political commentary, the documentary film offers an intimate glimpse into the resilience of the Bedouin community in Masafer Yatta, shedding light on their unwavering determination to remain on their ancestral land despite attempts to displace them.

One of the film’s most poignant moments unfolds as Adra documents the demolition of his own home by Israeli apartheid forces. Standing amidst the rubble, the camera captures his raw emotions, a stark testament to the personal toll of Israeli genocidal aggression.

These moments underscore Adra’s deep commitment to his community and his relentless dedication to documenting their struggle, offering a powerful, unfiltered account of life under occupation.

The film premiered on February 16, 2024, at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale), where it was featured in the prestigious Panorama section.

Adra’s acceptance speech at the Oscars struck a particularly powerful chord on social media, where many hailed him as a symbol of Palestinian resilience in the occupied West Bank.

His words, reflecting the lived reality of displacement and struggle, were widely shared as a testament to the endurance of his people in the face of Israeli aggression.

However, when Abraham took the microphone, his remarks ignited a debate on social media, with activists questioning his framing of the Palestinian struggle as a battle for "peace" and "co-existence."

When Abraham referred to Operation Al-Aqsa Flood as a “crime” and called for the release of “Israeli hostages”, without acknowledging the thousands of Palestinian abductees held in Israeli prisons, it became clear which side he was playing while pretending to be a sympathiser of Palestinians.

His appeal for a “political solution with national rights for both peoples” further drew anger and outrage, with many seeing it as an implicit endorsement of the "two-state solution."

Some activists argued that the Israeli filmmaker's stance aligns with the Tel Aviv regime's bid to normalize its illegal presence on the Palestinian land rather than addressing the core issues of occupation, apartheid and ethnic cleansing of native Palestinians.

Beyond individual critiques, a broader discussion emerged among film analysts on social media, where many argued that the film, celebrated as a victory for the Palestinian cause in world cinema, actually promoted a narrative of normalization with the occupation through the character of its Israeli director.

As some argued, while Abraham presented himself as a supporter of Palestinian rights, he remains “part of the colonial system” that produced the Nakba and the subsequent displacement, occupation, and settler colonization of Palestine.

Many said the film’s Oscar win was largely facilitated by the involvement of an Israeli director, rather than its Palestinian narrative. “If the film were purely Palestinian, it would not have made it to the Oscars so easily,” one of them stated.

According to activists, a closer examination of Abraham's statements reveals a narrative that frames the occupation through a colonizer’s lens—one that seeks to portray both the oppressor and the oppressed as equal partners in peace.

In some of his tweets on April 7, 2024, the Israeli filmmaker railed against the Gaza-based resistance for "unjustifiably holding" Israeli captives and went on to claim that women taken captive on October 7, 2023, were "likely facing rape, abuse, torture," claims that were eventually debunked by captives.

He did not discuss the issue of Palestinians held in Gaza or occupied West Bank on trumped-up charges or women and children butchered in hospitals, schools and refugee camps across Gaza.

Abraham was one of the leading proponents of the "Hamas rape" theory that was also amplified by Western media outlets such as the New York Times. In one of his tweets on May 26, 2024, he called Palestinians "propagandists" for questioning the unsubstantiated claims of Hamas committing rape.

His statements coupled with his liberal Zionist stance sparked outcry after he used the Palestinian cause to win an Oscar, especially since he attempted to equate the coloniser with the colonized. 

Associate professor Shabana Mir, from the Art Institute of Chicago, weighed in on the controversy, taking to X to express her frustration following months of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

“Yuval Abraham’s Oscar acceptance speech was annoying as f**. After 16 months of genocide. I’ve had it with Zionist-centric talk re Palestinians,” he wrote.

Journalist and social media influencer Sana Saeed also pointed out how Abraham’s remarks contributed to the erasure of power dynamics between the occupied and the occupier.

“Yuval Abraham’s speech blurring the lines between occupied and occupier, and the experience of violence, gets to the heart of how Palestinians are dehumanized by the ‘savior’ occupier—who can acknowledge their humanity only insofar as it doesn’t indict the broader colonial project,” she wrote.

Kylie Cheung, a staff writer at Jezebel, echoed similar concerns, highlighting the frustration over Israeli voices being positioned as necessary to narrate Palestinian stories.

“But to be clear, the insinuation that Israeli voices are necessary to help tell Palestinian stories is just very frustrating and relatedly I think this is a really important read,” she wrote.

Meanwhile, an X user Shabana Al-Dalou also criticized Abraham’s framing of the October 2023 events, particularly his call for coexistence between the occupied and the occupier.

“Yuval Abraham somehow said Palestinians can coexist with these people because ‘no other land.’ Also, don’t forget your daily October 7 condemnation, folks, cause Yuval still believes the rape lies story,” the user posted.

An X user under the name Zei-squirrel highlighted Abraham’s statements regarding Hamas.

“Yuval Abraham repeatedly spread the genocidal atrocity propaganda rape hoax, said Hamas must be destroyed—which is a call for genociding Gaza—lied about Hamas being responsible for the lack of peace, and called them ‘Islamist supremacists,” the user wrote.

The user also pointed to Abraham’s work for +972 Magazine, an Israeli magazine, describing it as a platform aligned with liberal Zionist perspectives.

“And he works for the liberal Zionist +972 Magazine, which was co-founded by Lisa Goldman, who lied that she personally saw non-existent photos of beheaded babies to mainstream that genocidal lie among Western liberals and progressives,” the user wrote.

Zei-squirrel further noted that Abraham’s Oscar win was politically motivated.

“That’s why they gave him the Oscar, in case you were wondering. And that’s why he hijacked the moment to whine about the Israeli rape-soldier prisoners in Gaza, grotesquely equating them with the countless Palestinian hostages.”

Another X user, Omar, expressed regret for initially celebrating the film’s Academy Award win.

“I apologize for celebrating this Oscars win prematurely. Turns out Yuval Abraham is an ‘Israeli’ that has peddled debunked narratives such as ‘r**, abuse, and torture.’ His rhetoric is also anti-resistance, which crosses all my red lines,” the user wrote.

Ronald D. Mexicuh II, a Washington correspondent for the news podcast Socraddicts, cited Abraham's April 7, 2024, post in which he reflected on the October 7 events.

“Today, six months ago, Hamas murdered three people I knew—two peace activists and a guy I went to school with—committing horrific massacres, kidnapping Israelis, many of them civilians, with 133 still unjustifiably held by Hamas in Gaza," he quoted Abraham as saying in the post.

Prominent Palestinian-American scientist, writer, and activist Susan Abulhawa also weighed in, underscoring Adra’s central role in the documentary.

“No Other Land could have easily been produced by Basel Adra alone. It was his life, after all, and his footage. His family. His land. His story,” she wrote in a post on X.

Abulhawa also criticized Abraham’s speech at the Oscars and his stance on Israel’s war on Gaza.

“So the liberal Zionist co-agent comes along to ‘give voice to the voiceless,’ as liberals like to say. The liberal Zionist, who peddled the rape hoax for months, who couldn’t say the word genocide, then equates the wholesale slaughter of half a million Palestinians with Hamas’ singular military operation to capture Israelis to get their own hostages back."

She further slammed Abraham for capitalizing on Palestinian suffering for personal gain, stating that he “hops on the back of Palestinian pain and rides that wave as he makes a name for himself, and money.”

Veteran journalist and Electronic Intifada director Ali Abunimah also praised Adra but noted that the politics surrounding the film deserve more scrutiny beyond “cheering and adulation.”

Abunimah, who was recently arrested in Switzerland for his pro-Palestine work, specifically pointed to the funding source of No Other Land.

“It’s significant to me that the film was funded by the EU, bitter enemies of the rights of the Palestinian people, fanatical supporters of Zionism, and avid enablers of the genocide in Gaza," he stated.

He argued that the EU’s willingness to back a film portraying Palestinians in the occupied West Bank as victims—while simultaneously portraying some Israelis as aggressors and others as saviors—aligns with its broader political agenda.

“The reason the EU is, however, willing to fund a film that portrays Palestinians in the occupied West Bank as victims, and (some) Israelis as aggressors and others as saviors, is solely because that suits the EU agenda of racial and ethnic segregation through the so-called ‘two-state solution,’” he wrote.

Renowned journalist and filmmaker Dan Cohen also took to X to share his critique of Abraham, stating that he “stayed within the confines of liberal Zionist/two-state solution discourse.”

Cohen argued that Abraham had a rare opportunity to highlight more urgent aspects of Israel’s “actions” but instead “virtue signaled by condemning October 7, as if anyone in Hollywood doesn’t already condemn Hamas.”

He added that Abraham’s message “conditioned Palestinian freedom on Israeli security, as if Palestinians don’t deserve security too.”

Meanwhile, David Miller, producer of Palestine Declassified, dismissed the notion of Israeli anti-Zionists altogether, saying it’s "tiring to even have to say this, but there are no ‘Israeli’ anti-Zionists."

"They are occupiers living on stolen land, and some engage in egregious publicity stunts to even squat on the concept of Palestinian loss to soothe their own rotten conscience," he said. 

Well-known Israeli writer and activist Alon Mizrahi discussed the political motivations that may have contributed to the documentary's Oscar win.

Mizrahi noted that the Israeli regime, through both overt and covert means, seeks to promote its image as a so-called vibrant democracy. 

He also described No Other Land as a "hasbara asset" serving the regime's propaganda efforts.

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