Hollywood awarded the Oscar for Best Documentary on Sunday night to “No Other Land,” a film brimming with anti-Israel distortions and outright lies. In a glittering ceremony, Tinseltown celebrated Pallywood propaganda on steroids, while Israel continues to lose the public diplomacy war.
The film fixates on the southern West Bank area of Masafer Yatta’s so-called “villages,” portraying Israelis as ruthless occupiers. The truth? These are illegal outposts built by Arab squatters on Firing Zone 918, an IDF training ground designated since 1980 after surveys confirmed the area’s history as an uninhabited desert. Ottoman, British, and Jordanian records back this up.
Yet, funded by foreign governments and NGOs, these squatters — many with homes in nearby Yatta — erected outposts, aided by anarchists bent on vilifying Israel. For two decades, they fought demolition orders in Israel’s Supreme Court with tales of victimhood, but hard evidence crushed their claims. "No Other Land" ignores this, favoring staged footage of orchestrated confrontations.
This isn’t a documentary — it’s propaganda. The film’s star runs an illegal gas station in the desert, hardly a noble victim. It skips the foreign funding (EU, France, UK, Belgium just to name a few), the Oslo Accords violations, and the mysterious “tourists” living in these “villages.”
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This false Palestinian narrative has one purpose: delegitimize Israel and spark sanctions on Israel and the IDF. Recognizing judicial defeat, the squatters and their leftist anarchist allies pivoted to shaping public opinion with antisemitic rhetoric, violence, and blood libel against Jews - “the evil settlers” - painting them as violent, when - as seen in the “behind-the-scene” footage filmed by the Har Hebron Regional Council’s field staff that Regavim posted on its X account - the ones who systematically sow hatred and havoc are the anarchists. They are led by the film's two directors, Yuval Abraham and Basel Adra, who come with cameras out to create chaos, to violently confront soldiers and Israeli citizens for the benefit of the show. Masafer Yatta became their battleground, and all means - even the lowest - culminated in this week’s Oscar win.
3 View gallery
Clips that landed on the cutting room floor: 'No Other Land' creators confronting IDF soldiers and make baseless accusations while filming
(Photo: Screenshot/ Regavim)
3 View gallery
Director Basel Adra is on the left, and director Yuval Abraham is on the right
(Photo: Screenshot/Regavim)
Can someone tell me how an illegal Arab squatter with a sheep and a tent challenges Israel’s global reputation? The truth is that the fault lies with Israel itself. The judiciary system allowed a 20-year legal circus, letting encroachment expand. The single tent became approximately 700 illegal constructions. The civil administration failed to protect the IDF firing zone or dismantle these structures. And to top it all off, the Foreign Ministry put its head in the sand and ignored all the foreign entities — led by the EU — funding the illegal construction, the legal battles, and provocations that smear Israel’s name. The ministry must finally take action and expel these anarchist groups and curb their influence. Hamas uses the same playbook: lies masquerading as victimhood.
In one thing the film (or more accurately the late Israeli lyricist Ehud Manor) is right: “We have no other land." Hollywood gave a Pallywood mockumentary an Oscar Sunday night, but this dangerous fable thrives only because Israel lets it. Israel’s silence is a disaster — and lessons must be learned.
We must counter with the truth and prevent the next Masafer Yatta story. Unfortunately, this “success” will ensure that if we don’t crack down on the anarchists and nothing changes, the sequel will be worse.
Rachel Touitou is Regavim’s spokesperson for international press