See Basel Adrda and Yuval Abraham's Oscar acceptance speeches for NO OTHER LAND HERE.

NO OTHER LAND was perhaps the most important OSCAR tonight. Here is a note from Zeteo about this which I endorse. I saw and reviewed NO OTHER LAND at the NYFF last fall. It would not have occurred to me that such an imporant film would have no US distribution! That's just not right.

'Stop the Ethnic Cleansing': Watch and Read the Most Powerful Oscars Speech for Years
Remarkable and historic speeches from both Palestinian co-director Basel Adra and Israeli co-director Yuval Abraham, after their film 'No Other Land' won the Oscar for Best Documentary.
Mehdi Hasan (Zeteo)
Mar 3
Hollywood has been cracking down on pro-Palestine voices since Oct. 7th, 2023, from the firing of Melissa Barrera from ‘Scream 7’, to the demotion of CAA power agent Maha Dakhil, to Susan Sarandon saying her “projects were pulled.”

It was, therefore, a rather pleasant surprise to see the most elite Hollywood audience of all - the crowd at the 97th Academy Awards ceremony at the Dolby Theater on Sunday evening - loudly applauding and cheering a Palestinian onstage, in primetime, as he decried the “ethnic cleansing” of his people and the “atrocious destruction of Gaza.”

Basel Adra is the Palestinian co-director of ‘No Other Land,’ which won the Oscar for Best Documentary on Sunday. The film was made by a Palestinian-Israeli collective of four activists - Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor - and tells the story of the destruction of Masafer Yatta, in the occupied West Bank, by the Israeli military. The title, ‘No Other Land,’ comes from a woman in the film who asks where else the Palestinians of the West Bank are supposed to go.

Basel Adra said: "We call on the world to take serious actions to stop the injustice and to stop the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people. About two months ago, I became a father, and my hope to my daughter that she will not have to live the same life I’m living now. … ‘No Other Land’ reflects the harsh reality that we have been enduring for decades and still resist.”

Yuval Abraham, said: “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; [and] the Israeli hostages, brutally taken in the crime of October 7, who must be freed. We are intertwined… Together, there is another way. When I look at Basel, I am struck by the fact that we are not equal according to the law on the West Bank. 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 it. There is a different path, a political solution, without ethnic supremacy; national rights for both of our people. And I have to say that US foreign policy is helping to block this path.”

Mehdi Hasan: "Got that? Not only did a film about occupied and persecuted Palestinians win an Oscar, but the great and the good of Hollywood put their hands together for two speeches slamming 'ethnic cleansing”'and 'ethnic supremacy' in Palestine. To quote the title of a previous Oscar winner’s best song: Times Have Changed. . . Nevertheless, they haven’t changed enough. As the New York Times noted on Sunday night, the film’s Oscar win represents 'a landmark and a rebuke. Despite a string of honors and rave reviews, no distributor would pick up this film in the United States, making it nearly impossible for American filmgoers to see it in theaters or to stream it.'

Mehdi Hasan continues: "As I have said many times before, the biggest victims of so-called ‘cancel culture’ in the US remain the Palestinian people and their supporters. The shameful treatment of No Other Land by the big distributors in our movie industry is just the latest and best example of that.. . So let us do our best to make sure Adra and Abraham’s powerful and historic speeches go far and wide. You can watch and read them in full below."

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©Chris Knipp. Blog: http://chrisknipp.blogspot.com/.