Oscar-Winning Palestinian Director Speaks at UN on Israeli Settlements

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Palestinian director Basel Adra, who won an Oscar this year for co-directing a documentary film about Israeli violence in the West Bank, testified at the UN on Thursday. As reported by Al Arabiya and Arab News, the situation has worsened despite the film's success.

Adra was invited to speak by the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People during the screening of his film, No Other Land.

This documentary film depicts the forced displacement of Palestinians by Israeli forces and settlers in Masafer Yatta, an area declared a forbidden military zone by Israel in the 1980s.

Adra told the UN that he wants the world to know that we live on this land, that we exist, and see what we face every day, this brutal occupation.

The film portrays events like bulldozers demolishing homes and schools, as well as provocations by Israeli settlers against Palestinians, leading to escalating violence.

Following prolonged legal battles, the Israeli Supreme Court decided in 2022 to support the Israeli military, allowing the expulsion of inhabitants from eight villages in the area.

Adra mentioned that the situation just changes from bad to worse even after winning an Oscar. Settler attacks happen almost every day in Masafer Yatta and across communities throughout the West Bank.

Last week, Adra's co-director, fellow Palestinian Hamdan Ballal, was attacked by Israeli settlers for winning the Oscar. Israeli police detained him for allegedly throwing stones at the settlers who had assaulted him.

However, testimonies from several sources stated that Ballal was arrested while being treated in an ambulance for head injuries.

Human rights groups have said that since the start of the Israeli genocide in Gaza, a separate Palestinian territory, there has been a surge in attacks by Israeli settlers in the West Bank.

Occupied by Israel since 1967, the West Bank is home to around three million Palestinians, as well as nearly half a million Israeli Jewish settlers living in settlements deemed illegal under international law.

No Other Land, despite winning a prestigious Oscar, has struggled to find distribution in the United States, only being screened in a few cinemas.

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