The winners of Best Documentary Feature Film at the Oscars used their acceptance speech to highlight the need for peace in the Middle East and called for the liberation of Palestine, as well as the safety of Israel.
Basel Adra, a Palestinian activist, and Yuval Abraham, an Israeli investigative journalist, won the Oscar for their film No Other Land, a movie that shows the destruction of the occupied West Bank's Masafer Yatta by Israeli soldiers and explores the alliance that develops between the two men.
The documentary was filmed over four years between 2019 and 2023, wrapping production days before Hamas launched its deadly October 7, 2023, attack on Israel that started the war in Gaza.
Adra told crowds of A-listers, which included actress and former IDF soldier Gal Gadot, that he had recently become a father, and hoped his young daughter would not have to live in fear, as he had “under Israeli occupation.”
“We call on the world to stop the serious injustice and to stop the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people,” Adra said to cheers and rapturous applause.
Abraham called Adra his “brother” but said in order for Israelis to be “truly safe,” then Palestinians must be “truly free.” “We made this film – Palestinians and Israelis – because together our voices are stronger,” Abraham said.
“We see each other, the atrocious destruction of Gaza and its people which must end, Israeli hostages brutally taken in the crime of October 7 which must be freed.”
He continued: “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 and Basel is under military law that destroy his life and he cannot control.”
The speech comes after Israel cut off the entry of all food and other goods into Gaza, in an echo of the siege it imposed in the earliest days of its war with Hamas. The United Nations and other humanitarian aid providers have sharply criticized the decision, calling it a violation of international law.
Abraham added: “There is a different path, a political solution without ethnic supremacy with national rights for both our people. I have to say, the foreign policy in this country is helping to block this path. Why?
“Can’t you see that we are intertwined. That my people can be truly safe, if Basel’s people are truly free and safe. There is another way. It’s not too late for life, for the living – there is no other way.”
