In his speech, Adra called on “the world to take serious actions to stop the injustice and to stop the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people.” There was quite a bit of applause from the audience, but I could not help but wonder if the very narrow focus of the rest of Adra’s speech, how it concentrated on just one specific region of Palestine, or the mention of his infant daughter, were palliatives to make his call to “stop the injustice” more acceptable. Would there have been applause if Adra had asked for an end to the injustice “from the river to the sea?”
Yuval Abraham’s speech, on the other hand, was a masterpiece of liberal hasbara, saviorism, and “both sides-ism.” He spoke of “both peoples” being “intertwined,” and called for the release of the Israeli hostages in Gaza, stressing that freedom for Palestinians would ensure the safety of his people. Nowhere in his speech was there even a hint of the questioning of Zionism, of the fact that Israel, by its mere existence, dispossesses the Palestinian people.
His focus was very much on the present moment: ethnic cleansing in Masafer Yatta, but he made no mention of the fact that 80% of the population of the Gaza Strip -though he did mention Gaza – has been ethnically cleansed from towns and villages that are now in Israel.
He steered away from the recognized word to correctly describe Israel’s crimes, even as he mentioned two legal systems, civilian for himself, and military for his “brother,” Basel. That word would have been “apartheid,” but liberal Zionists don’t use that term, just as they don’t mention that Israel’s very creation hinges on the ethnic cleansing of people from Yaffa, Haifa, Carmel, and so many other “Israeli” cities. Long before Masafar Yatta…
Cherished liberal buzzwords and concepts permeated Abraham’s speech: co-existence, not co-resistance, even though, in the documentary, Abraham actually does try to co-resist Israel’s land appropriation of Masafer Yatta. The takeaway for many viewers was the need for safety for the Israelis, but only passing mention of “safety” for Palestinians. There was no mention, heaven forbid, of ending the blockade of Gaza, or even, ending the illegal occupation of the West Bank. The words settler colonialism, occupation, return, blockade, starvation, genocide, and apartheid, were not uttered.
“No Other Land” may have won a well-deserved Oscar, but Abraham’s speech was the epitome of liberal Zionist hasbara, stealing the limelight from Palestinian strugglers to center the “good Israeli savior.”