Why is America afraid of ‘No Other Land’?
The widely acclaimed film has failed to find a US
distributor because it reveals truths Americans should not see.
Freelance journalist and filmmaker
5 Mar 2025
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2025/3/5/why-is-america-afraid-of-no-other
On March 2, the Israeli-Palestinian co-production No
Other Land was awarded an Academy Award for best documentary. The Oscar – a
first for Palestine – has now been added to the list of 45 awards that the film
has won since its release in 2024, including best documentary in the 2024
European Film Awards, the 2024 Berlin International Film Festival, and the 2024
Gotham Awards.
The feature has received widespread critical acclaim
and glowing five-star reviews in international media. It has been screened
around the world and has consistently sold out in independent screenings in the
United States. And yet, no US distributor would pick it up to show it
nationwide. The only reason for that is its subject matter: Palestine.
The documentary follows the lives of Palestinian
communities in Masafer Yatta, an area near Hebron in the southern occupied West
Bank, which the Israeli army has declared a “military zone”. Under this
pretext, Israeli troops and illegal settlers regularly harass its residents and
destroy their houses, rendering them homeless. The story is told through the
lens of co-directors Basel Adra, a Palestinian activist, and Yuval Abraham, an
Israeli journalist.
This raw, harrowing depiction of Israel’s ongoing
crimes is something distributors are clearly afraid of showing. And this is in
a country that prides itself on its constitutionally guaranteed right to free
speech.
The distributors’ fear is a great illustration of just
how massive the campaign is to erase Palestine in the US, affecting every
aspect of public life – from education to the media, and to arts and cinema.
Of course, anti-Palestinian censorship is nothing new.
Since 1948, Palestinian culture and history have continually faced attempted
erasure as Israel has tried to justify its land grab, claiming the Palestinian
people do not exist and have no right to their own land. This narrative has
also dominated public perceptions in Western countries that have supported
Israel throughout its existence – foremost among them the United States.
Maintaining this narrative has been key to continuing
political support.
If the American public is exposed to more information
about what is happening in Palestine, if Palestinians are humanised in the
mainstream, if they are given a platform to tell their stories of experiencing
genocide and apartheid, then public opinion would start shifting dramatically.
It already is. Various polls over the past year showed
that Americans, especially Democrats, disagreed with their government’s
policies on Israel-Palestine. The majority of Democrats supported a ceasefire
in Gaza when President Joe Biden’s administration was refusing to endorse it.
This stance ultimately cost Kamala Harris countless votes in the presidential
election.
A significant change in public opinion on
Israel-Palestine would make it hard for the US Congress to sustain the
multibillion-dollar financing of the Israeli military and political support for
occupation and apartheid.
That is why the erasure campaign – spearheaded by
Israel itself – against Palestinian voices, stories and history must be
maintained.
But the challenges No Other Land has experienced since
its release are not just another clear-cut case of anti-Palestinian censorship.
The film has shared storytelling between a Palestinian
and an Israeli. It is not solely Adra’s voice that is heard in the documentary
talking about what is happening in Palestine, but also Abraham’s.
As the latter acknowledged during his award acceptance
speech at the Oscars: “Together, our voices are stronger.” Indeed, if the film
was fully Palestinian-made, it would have been labelled as biased and struggled
to garner the same level of global attention. Having an Israeli co-director has
probably opened some doors, but it also made it more “dangerous”.
In his speech, Abraham said: “When I look at Basel, I
see my brother, but we are unequal. We live in a regime where I am free under
civilian law but Basel has to live under military laws that destroy his life
and he cannot control. There is a different path. A political solution without
ethnic supremacy.”
The idea of an Israeli such as Abraham expressing
opposition to apartheid and occupation is clearly not tolerated. It does not
fit the mainstream narrative that Israel is the moral compass and that all
Palestinians only wish for the obliteration of all Jews.
There are many Jewish Americans who share Abraham’s
views and have spoken out against Israel. They have not only been branded as
“self-hating Jews” by Israel supporters but have also been harassed, censored,
accused of anti-Semitism and even arrested during demonstrations.
Such attacks under the guise of “countering
anti-Semitism” and “out of concern for Jewish safety” have actually made many
Jewish people unsafe.
Abraham himself was made to feel “unsafe and
unwelcome” in Germany – the very country that has made its reason d’etre the
protection of Israel and Jewish people – after his award acceptance speech at
the Berlin Film Festival last year.
German politicians rushed to label his speech
“anti-Semitic”, while the website of the city of Berlin described No Other Land
as “exhibiting anti-Semitic tendencies”.
Like the US, Germany has only doubled down on support
for Israel since the start of its genocidal campaign in Gaza. In this way, both
countries, like the rest of Israel’s Western supporters, have become barriers
to peace.
Abraham alluded to this very point during his
acceptance speech, saying it is US “foreign policy helping block the path” to
peace.
Despite all the challenges it has faced, No Other Land
has achieved remarkable success. Hoping still to reach a wider audience in the
US, the filmmakers have opted to self-distribute across select theatres. To
find out where the film is screening, you can visit its website.
No Other Land is a powerful film that Americans must
see. As Adra pointed out in a recent interview for Democracy Now, we hold
responsibility. Our tax money is funding the destruction of his community,
which has only accelerated in the past year.
A few weeks before the Oscar win, Adra wrote on social
media: “Anyone who cared about No Other Land should care about what is actually
happening on the ground… Masafer Yatta is disappearing in front of my eyes.”
Americans must take action.
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