Dysfunction like no other for No Other Land! Predictably, the Oscar award for the documentary film “No Other Land” generated reactions among the classic fault lines of the Israel and Palestine conflict. Some believed it was a courageous work that highlighted the value of non-violent activism and cooperation between Palestinians and Israelis to challenge unjust forms of a military occupation regime that continuously pushes Palestinians out of lands they have lived on for generations and seeks to erase their connection to that land permanently. Others thought that the timing of the movie was tone deaf and that affording it this major platform was a political message by Hollywood’s elites who wanted to virtue signal their support for Palestinians at a time when many Israelis are still reeling from the consequences of October 7, the pain of the Bibas family tragedy and the continued suffering of hostages still in Hamas’s captivity. Notably and despite winning an Oscar, the film does not have a distributor in the United States except for a few independent theaters that will be showing it – something that casts doubt on the notion of a concerted effort by Hollywood to elevate a film about Palestinians while also failing to allow it to be seen by the masses in the United States. For many who support the Palestinian people, there is genuine excitement that finally, the days of marginalizing the Palestinian story, experience, and voices are gone – that this film is part of a broader trajectory of a shift in global public opinion to acknowledge the plight of Palestinians and push for their cause to be front and center in the western world which is seen as the ultimate enabler of Israel’s sustained military occupation of the Palestinian people. Art and film have emerged as powerful tools for telling the Palestinian story and engaging in a form of perseverance and non-violent activism in the face of power imbalances and injustice. In the absence of effective diplomacy and given the futility of armed resistance, these efforts might just be what gets desperately lacking attention to the experience of the thousands of Palestinians who are constantly facing the risk of expulsion and displacement. What has been intriguing and at times disturbing to observe among some “pro-Israel” detractors of the film is that any mention of Palestinian suffering or recognition of Palestinians on a major platform such as the Oscars triggers such a visceral response that can be broken into several categories. There is a fair amount of bigotry whereby a reference to the Palestinians is reflexively met with prejudiced reactions that deny the very existence of Palestinians as a people. For some it feels impossible to talk about Palestinians without immediately engaging in whataboutism and bringing up Hamas, the hostages, terrorism and other issues. A few seemed to think that no amount of films, activism, or international solidarity will change the fact that Palestinians’ freedom and independence can only come by directly working with Israelis to overcome the various issues that have prevented a resolution to the conflict. Others were willing to accept Palestinians being acknowledged at the Oscars but felt that there was no space afforded to Israelis and their suffering following October 7 and that the conversation and discourse have been unfairly skewed in favor of one side. Separately, it has been frustrating to observe “anti-normalization” cultists and freaks who are against the film because they believe it only won a platform as a result of it being jointly produced by a Palestinian and an Israeli. There is a fervent attitude that anything Israeli automatically means colonizer and oppressor even when it entails expressions of allyship and solidarity and even when Israeli partners help elevate otherwise neglected and overlooked Palestinian stories. Unfortunately, this film is another painful demonstration of the dysfunctional dynamics prevalent in this conflict. Despite the imbalance of power dynamics between Palestinians and Israelis, there is and should be space for the suffering of both peoples to include the realities of military occupation in parts of the West Bank and the horrendous consequences of Hamas’s terrorism on October 7. The insistence on adopting reductionist black and white, oppressed and oppressor dynamics and frameworks will never help break the vicious cycle and disrupt the entrenched narratives, even if there is some truth to parts of these claims. Most importantly, the cultist insistence that Jewish-Israelis by default are occupying colonizers even if they are steadfast allies to the Palestinian people is wrong, unhelpful, ridiculously ineffective, and shows a prejudiced unwillingness to acknowledge any form of partnership with Israelis simply because of their mere existence and who they are. If you haven’t seen the movie but are upset by its message, you should watch it and judge for yourself. If you don’t believe in any form of cooperation between the two people because you are “anti-normalization,” then be a bit more explicit in saying that you will never tolerate the existence of Israeli Jews and stop pretending that you simply are pursuing peace and justice when in fact, you want the erasure of an entire people – making you no less detrimental than the violence of occupation and the settlement enterprise.

I feel immense shame and pain seeing the barbarism that Hamas & a slew of terror organizations put on in Gaza – the depravity of armed men thinking it’s courageous to parade the bodies of literal toddlers and their mother as some trophy for victory; the sickness, evil, and stupidity required to believe that marching with a locked coffin of an 85-year-old peace activist who did so much for Gazans is somehow good for the Palestinian cause. Instead of having a parade for a dead mother, her two babies, and an elderly man of peace, their bodies should have been handled by medical crews with no armed terrorists in sight. This could have been done differently, but Jihadi fascists chose the appalling spectacle instead. I’m ashamed of any Palestinian who supports or justifies this; I’m ashamed of any “pro-Palestine” activists, “journalists,” or “experts” who are going out of their way to whitewash this and blame Israeli bombardment for killing Israeli hostages without blaming Hamas for taking hostages in the first place. Those who attacked me repeatedly for calling out Hamas and their Jihadi fascism from day one never seem to understand why I view them as a far more serious existential threat to the Palestinian people than any far-right party or government in Israel. Hamas isn’t just bringing death and destruction upon the Palestinian people; it is decaying and eroding the value system of the Palestinian society and causing rot and degradation from within. This is a serious and terrible consequence of the group's actions that will decimate hopes for Palestinian freedom, independence, and sovereignty, not to mention respect among the nations of the world. What transpired today isn’t just illegal, immoral, vile, and disgusting; to me, and many who aspire to have a Palestine worth fighting for, it is a matter of values and principles. It’s imperative for all Palestinians of conscience, even if they’re furious at Israel for what it did to Gaza after October 7, to speak out and say not in our name. It is imperative to distance the Palestinian people from the depraved evil and vile display of fascist cowardice that’s masquerading as “resistance.” It’s time to reject Hamas and separate the Palestinian people’s just and urgent aspirations from a despicable death cult that’s dehumanizing our people time and again. It’s time to denounce all the pro-“resistance” terror enthusiasts in New York, Europe, Australia, and elsewhere who keep cheering on Hamas and are celebrating the shameful parade of dead children, their mother, and an elderly peace activist. I am ashamed that my once beautiful Gaza, with a vibrant society that stood for values and had so much potential to be the crown jewel of the Palestinian people, has been degraded and embarrassed by inhumane terrorists who are a stain on the Palestinians and their cause. Gaza is not Hamas despite the terror group’s control. I have seen dozens of Palestinians in the Strip condemning what took place today and denouncing the inhumanity of Hamas. Saying these words does not making me "self-hating," for I am proud of my Palestinian heritage and care deeply about my people. To the Bibas and Lifshitz families, I am truly sorry for your loss – I grieve with you, and I share your pain. We shall overcome.