Photo Credit: Antipode Films

This weekend, an underdog film won in the category of “documentary feature” at the Oscars. The film is called “No Other Land.” It was made by a cadre of young, incredibly talented Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers and activists. 

The film traces Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham’s story of joint struggle against Israel’s military occupation of Basel’s home in the West Bank area of Masafer Yatta. 

Not only is the film itself a must-watch, so are their acceptance speeches.

Basel explained to the glittering audience that he recently became a father. “My hope for my daughter,” he said, “is that she will not have to live the same life I am living—always fearing settler violence, home demolitions, forcible displacements that my community in Masafer Yatta is living and facing every day under Israeli occupation.”

Yuval spoke eloquently about the reason that he and Basel made this film. It was because, he said, “together our voices are stronger…Can’t you see that we’re intertwined? That my people can be truly safe if Basel’s people are truly free and safe. There is another way.”

We know that the future of Israelis and Palestinians will be one that is shared—because neither Palestinians nor Israelis are going anywhere. This film’s Oscar win offers all a moment to celebrate and to hope. At the New Israel Fund we’ve been working on the issues that the film raises—blocking settler violence in the West Bank and the forced displacement of Palestinians there, in addition to our work to build a better future for Israelis and Palstinians—for years. Below is some content and a few resources we have put together that approach the issues from different angles.

1. Take a look here for opportunities in your area to watch the film! 
2. Listen to an episode of NIF’s podcast, Groundwork. The episode titled “A Quiet Transfer” takes listeners into Masafer Yatta to hear about their lives and their willingness to put so much on the line to stay in their West Bank village. This episode is narrated by our Senior Director of Media and Policy, Elisheva Goldberg. 
3. Read Young Leadership & Education Manager Zak Witus’s op-ed forThe Guardian, I met the Israeli settlers Biden placed sanctions on. They’re bad – but part of a rotten system, about his time in Masafer Yatta, interacting with some of the most violent settlers, acting as a protective presence for Palestinians living there. 
4. Watch the recent webinar from Tu B’Shvat about Planting Justice, a campaign in the NIF is running alongside one of our most incredible grantees, Rabbis for Human Rights. They are leading weekly trips to plant trees in Palestinian communities in the West Bank and the Negev.  
5. We support a variety of grantees who document settler violence and the army’s complicity in that violence, such as Yesh Din and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel. You can follow their work on social media in English here and here.