The documentary film No Other Land made waves at the recent 2025 Academy Awards, winning the Oscar for Best Documentary. The film, produced by an Israeli journalist and a Palestinian filmmaker, both also activists, highlighted the destruction of Palestinian communities in the West Bank by the Israeli military and settlers, which has been ongoing since 1967 despite being illegal under international law.
The success enjoyed by the film seems like a miracle considering the attempts made to suppress it. The film did not receive wide distribution rights across the US, meaning many cinemas did not show it. Meanwhile, numerous other films on Palestine have increasingly faced similar attempts at apparent censorship.
Filmed in the act
No Other Land was rightly praised by critics upon its release as a masterpiece. For over two hours, it showcases first hand footage of the demolitions of Palestinian villages, captured by the Palestinian filmmaker Basel Adra, alongside an Israeli journalist, Yuval Abraham.
The film shows Israeli military units repeatedly returning again and again to the area of Masafer Yatta in the West Bank, tearing down everything from homes to schools to chicken farms. The impunity with which these military teams are seen to go about these activities, as well as the shocking moments of violence when met with even the mildest forms of peaceful resistance, is blood-curdling. The film is one that places the viewer squarely in the shoes of ordinary Palestinians, forcing them to confront the regularity with which, even before the terror attacks of 7 October, and the ongoing genocide in Gaza, they faced the loss of their homes, arbitrary arrests, threats, violence and killings.
The film also helps to highlight the stark differences existing between Israelis and Palestinians within the segregationist regime that Israel has imposed on the region, from Palestinians’ cars being given separate license plates, which come with unique travel restrictions, to the separate worlds we see Adra and Abraham inhabiting, as each face entirely different rules and restrictions in their daily lives.
An immediate backlash
However, even as the film received such glowing mainstream recognition at the Oscars, it faced a reprisal that was swift and severe.
Prior to its Oscar win, both Adra and Abraham had been subject to violence or intimidation for their roles in making the film. Within the film itself, audiences witness the threats and intimidation Adra specifically receives for daring to film Israeli forces in the act, and following its release, he was accosted and beaten by Israeli settlers.
Abraham meanwhile had fellow Israelis forming a mob outside his home, whilst the German politician and Berlin Mayor, Kai Wegner, went so far as to accuse the Jewish journalist of himself being antisemitic following the film’s premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival. Responding to this, Abraham stated. “the appalling misuse of this word by Germans, not only to silence Palestinian critics of Israel, but also to silence Israelis like me who support a ceasefire…empties the word antisemitism of meaning, and thus endangers Jews all over the world.”
Despite this, the film continued to be attacked as one-sided and antisemitic, in the aftermath of their Oscar win, by US, Israeli, and German politicians. Meanwhile, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel – which is part of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, itself also criticised the film for ‘normalising’ engagement with Israelis. For many, it seems even the mere sight of Palestinians and Israelis standing together and campaigning together, is unacceptable.
However, the most shocking backlash against the film came just under a week after its high-profile success at the 2025 Oscars, when, on March 24, the film’s Palestinian co-director, Hamdan Ballal, was himself targeted and assaulted by a mob outside his home in the West Bank. According to reports, between 10 and 20 masked settlers attacked Ballal with sticks and stones. They were then joined by IDF soldiers, who struck him on the head with rifle butts, before dragging him off and detaining him at an IDF base for over a day, where he claimed he was assaulted again. At the same time, Israel gave out no indication as to his wellbeing or the reasons for his detainment, nor did they state how long he would be detained for, even as news of the kidnapping spread across social media and international news coverage.
In spite of its recent recognition for his work, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences remained silent as news of the assault came out. On March 27, it issued a blanket statement supporting artistic freedom, but failed to issue any open acknowledgement of what had happened to Ballal himself, stating a need to “respect unique viewpoints”. Only after receiving an open letter signed by nearly 700 high-profile Academy members, did the Academy apologise to Ballal himself.
Silencing criticism
This reaction from the Academy, has spoken to a general cowardice in the face of increased attempts by pro-Israeli lobbyists to block any and all films addressing their oppression of Palestinians.
This has been just as much of an ongoing problem in the UK, both before and since this reaction to the Oscars. Louis Theroux’s recent BBC documentary, The Settlers, which aired on April 27, 2025, made headlines for how it captured in real time the brazen callousness of prominent Israeli settlers and politicians. The documentary generally seems to have had a wide reception, no doubt in part due to Theroux’s own personal popularity. But, as he states in an article published on May 10, 2025, the main response to his film was, in his words, “at last, mainstream British TV is saying something.” Upon airing, the documentary continued to be written off by papers such as The Spectator or The Jewish Chronicle as ‘biased’. Meanwhile, documentaries from other filmmakers have been not just criticised, but actively taken out of circulation.
The BBC had attracted huge controversy on February 19, 2025, after the release of its documentary Gaza: How To Survive A War Zone. Pro-Israeli voices across the country loudly criticised the film, with claims that one of the children providing a voice over was the son of a Hamas official. Though the film never glorifies Hamas, instead simply showing what is happening on the ground, the BBC quickly relented under this pressure and promptly took it down from their streaming service, BBC iPlayer. At present, the film remains unavailable on this service, whilst the BBC has also indefinitely delayed the broadcast of a separate documentary, Gaza: Medics Under Fire. This is in spite of the film supposedly having been ready to air since February, as well as receiving extensive editorial reviews and fact-checks.
Open letter to the BBC
Susan Sarandon, Indira Varma, Miriam Margolyes, and Juliet Stevenson have been amongst the 600 entertainment industry figures to sign an open letter earlier this week calling for the film’s release, and for an end to such blatant suppression of information.
“The BBC continues to demonstrate bias in its reporting and coverage of events in Gaza, raising continued concern and criticism about the balance and impartiality of its journalism in this region,” the letter states. “This is not editorial caution. It’s political suppression. The BBC has provided no timeline, no transparency. Such decisions reinforce the systemic devaluation of Palestinian lives in our media.”
The BBC have not as yet given any confirmation as to whether this film will indeed be released. If it is to retain any kind of credibility, it must do so at once. It is utterly unacceptable that films produced and released in the UK should be censored in this way, and it is essential for the sake of our own freedom of expression that they do not bow to such pressure.
No Other Land shows the influence good coverage can have
The success of No Other Land has shown the vital importance that such uncensored, and unfiltered coverage, can have in showing what is happening on the ground in these places. Whilst they may not seem to have a direct impact, with further demolitions and attacks by settlers having increased alongside the assault on Gaza since October 7, 2023, films such as this one have helped to renew attention towards Masafer Yatta in the face of reports of imminent forcible transfers of its population. As the international community blithely watches on, with foreign journalists prevented from entering Gaza itself, freedom in filmmaking is more essential than ever in building international pressure against what is happening in the region.
ADDED 05/06/2025
Dear Editor,
Yuval Abraham, a co-director with Hamdan Ballal of the film No Other Land, reported yesterday, 4th June, 2025, via X, that “Israeli settlers and soldiers stormed Hamdan’s village and began building a new illegal outpost directly in front of his home. The village is called Susiya, it’s in Masafer Yatta, which is being systematically destroyed faster than ever before. Hamdan said he hopes journalists urgently come to the area because the lives of everyone there are in danger.” His post was commented on by Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territory is illegal under international law. However, there are now around 737,000 Israeli settlers living in illegal settlements in the West Bank. Their objective is to make the West Bank part of Israel, under the name Judea & Samaria, harking back literally thousands of years to where the biblical Samaritans and Judeans were supposed to be living.
To achieve this aim Israel turns a blind eye to the settlers’ methods of getting rid of the Palestinians. Settlers vandalise homes, set up new illegal outposts that the Israeli government leaves alone, attack farmers, destroy crops such as traditional olive groves, and steal livestock under the supervision of the Israeli army.
Of late the settlers have become even bolder and more fierce than usual, since the Israeli government has given the go-ahead for 22 new settlements, plus legalising the many current illegal ones. As the film’s title, No Other Land, implies, there is no other Palestinian land for Palestinians to dwell peacefully in. They are not welcome in Israel now, even less when Greater Israel comes into existence, incorporating Gaza and the West Bank, unless the international governments take decisive action to stop Israel’s current murderous activities and turn it into a decent country obeying international laws.
By Devra Wiseman
