Ahmed Asmar
03 March 2025•Update: 04 March 2025
ANKARA
Israeli Culture Minister Miki Zohar on Monday denounced awarding the Oscar to a documentary highlighting the Israeli demolition of a Palestinian village and displacing its people.
“It is a sad moment for the world of cinema," Zohar said on his X account.
The Israeli minister claimed that "the filmmakers chose to echo narratives that distort Israel's image in the world."
“No Other Land,” a documentary about Palestinians fighting to protect their homes from demolition by the Israeli army, won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature.
It highlights the forced displacement of Palestinians by the Israeli army from their areas in Masafer Yatta village in the southern West Bank after demolishing their homes.
The film follows the story of a Palestinian family being forcibly displaced by the Israeli army from their home in the occupied territory.
As they took the stage to receive the award on Sunday, the film’s directors, Basil Adra, Yuval Abraham, Hamdan Bilal, and Rachel Szor, called for an end to the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Last month, US President Donald Trump proposed to “take over” Gaza and resettle its population to develop it into a tourist destination, an idea vehemently rejected by the Arab world and many other nations, who say it amounts to ethnic cleansing.
More than 48,300 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and over 111,000 others injured in a brutal Israeli war on Gaza since October 2023. The onslaught, which left the enclave in ruins, was paused under a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement that took hold on Jan. 19.
Israel, however, halted the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza on Sunday, hours after the expiry of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
