The Truth About The Oscar-Winning Anti-Israel Documentary "No Other Land"

The Oscar winner for Best Documentary Feature Film, “No Other Land,” is based 
on lies, according to an Israeli group that documents illegal Arab 
construction in Judea and Samaria, also known as the West Bank.

“No Other Land,” a documentary co-directed by left-wing Israelis and Arab 
activists, won the Oscar on Sunday night. Its Palestinian co-director, Basel 
Adra, took to the stage for his acceptance speech to accuse Israel of ethnic 
cleansing.

“‘No Other Land’ reflects the harsh reality that we have been enduring for 
decades and still resist as we call on the world to take serious actions to 
stop the injustice and to stop the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian 
people,” Adra said.

His Israeli co-director, left-wing journalist Yuval Abraham, chimed in, 
claiming that he is free as an Israeli, while Adra is “under military law 
that destroys his life and he cannot control.”

But according to the Israeli NGO Regavim, the documentary relies on a 
“concoction of misrepresentations and outright fabrications.”

“This is a propaganda film that serves the false Palestinian narrative, and 
seeks to undermine the legitimacy of the State of Israel in the international 
arena in order to cause boycotts and sanctions of IDF fighters,” Meir 
Deutsch, director-general of Regavim, said in a statement.

Throughout the film, Adra documents his struggle to stop the Israeli Defense 
Forces from demolishing what are described as “ancient villages” in an area 
called Masafer Yatta, which is east of the Palestinian Authority town of 
Yatta. In reality, Regavim points out, all of the so-called villages of 
Masafer Yatta did not exist when Israel declared the area an IDF training 
zone for live-fire exercises in the early 1980s.

The name Masafer Yatta is believed to come from the word “traveling,” a 
reference to its distance from Yatta, or from the Arabic word for “nothing” 
or “zero,” a reference to the desert wasteland that was not suitable for 
anything.

Aerial photographs dating as far back as 1945 — some of which the Arabs 
submitted themselves to the Israeli Supreme Court — show no signs of a 
residential presence before the 1980s. Not until the 2000s does the area have 
signs of habitation in the images.


The IDF routinely blocked attempts to build illegal structures on the 
training ground in the 1980s and 1990s when the Israeli Air Force and IDF 
were conducting live-fire exercises. However, Arab farmers and shepherds were 
allowed to use the zone when there were lulls in training to plant and 
harvest crops and graze livestock.

IDF Firing Zone 918, where Masafer Yatta is located, is within “Area C” of 
Judea and Samaria, which is under full Israeli control under the Oslo 
Accords. Yatta is located in “Area A,” which puts it under the full control 
of the Palestinian Authority. “Area B” is under dual Israeli and Palestinian 
Authority control.

In 2000, a group of Arabs petitioned to Israel’s High Court of Justice to 
block the demolition orders issued against their squatter structures, leading 
to a temporary injunction that suspended demolitions and prohibited new, 
permanent construction.

During the 12 years of deliberation over the petition, the group of Arabs 
continued to rapidly increase construction, which has been funded in part by 
European countries. Several photos Regavim has taken at the sites of the 
illegal building have signs attributing funding to the European Union, other 
European governments, and UK Aid, a foreign aid agency of the United Kingdom. 
Some of the signs state that the villages are part of “The State of 
Palestine.”


According to Naomi Kahn, the director of the international division of 
Regavim, the Palestinian Authority encourages and supports the illegal 
construction as a way of taking over Area C.

“Since the announcement by the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority in 
2009 that the Oslo framework was no longer binding, the Palestinian Authority 
has poured all of its resources into de facto annexation of Area C.”

Kahn stresses that more than 60% of Areas A and B — the territory already 
under Palestinian Authority control — is empty and available for construction 
and development.

“They are putting facts on the ground in strategic points, forming the map of 
a Palestinian state in the entirety of Judea and Samaria — without the bother 
of negotiation or compromise with Israel.”

In 2012, the temporary injunction was extended, allowing grazing and seasonal 
agriculture, as well as year-round residences in the northern section where 
the IDF would only carry out “dry” training maneuvers, which do not involve 
the use of live ammunition.

The following year, another petition was filed while the illegal construction 
continued to grow, preventing the IDF from using the firing zone. The Arab 
appellants called for all structures to be legalized, arguing that they 
resided in the area before it became an IDF firing zone.

In 2022, the court handed down a decision that accused the Arab appellants of 
abusing the legal process and violating the injunctions against continuing 
construction. The court also found that many of the appellants owned 
permanent residences in Yatta.

Since the failed legal efforts, the international community has pressured 
Israel to stop the demolition orders, which has led to the elevation of “No 
Other Land” in the world press.

Though the film earned more than 25 times less than Matt Walsh’s 2024 film 
“Am I Racist,” which was not nominated for an Oscar, Adra and Abraham’s film 
continues to win awards, even in the aftermath of Hamas’s massacre, 
kidnapping, and raping of Israeli civilians.

“No Other Land” claims it ended filming in 2023 but pays a brief tribute to 
the October 7 attack, with the voice of an Arabic-speaking newscaster and the 
translation, “Netanyahu promised revenge that will be more painful for the 
attack Hamas carried out killing Israelis in unprecedented numbers. Israel 
killed thousands of Palestinians in Gaza while hundreds of Israelis are held 
hostage.”

“The short ‘tribute’ to October 7 in the Pallywood Propaganda Film ‘No Other 
Land’ show precisely how much they actually care about human life or 
coexistence,” Kahn said.

Israel’s Culture Minister Miki Zohar called the film’s Oscar award a “sad 
moment for the world of cinema.”

“Instead of presenting the complexity of Israeli reality, the filmmakers 
chose to amplify narratives that distort Israel’s image vis-à-vis 
international audiences,” Zohar said. “Freedom of expression is an important 
value, but turning the defamation of Israel into a tool for international 
promotion is not art — it is sabotage against the State of Israel, especially 
in the wake of the October 7th massacre and the ongoing war.”