In my mind, I often replay the moment we learned “No Other Land” had won an Oscar. My cousins and I leaped with joy, racing through our village of Susiya, shouting, “the Oscar is ours!” at the top of our lungs. I was so proud to see pictures of my cousin Basel Adra and his parents Nasser and Kifah wearing traditional Palestinian dress on the red carpet. Videos of the celebration thrown by the Palestinian community in Los Angeles for Basel, Hamdan Ballal, and my father Nasser who accompanied them, filled me with even more pride.
We knew we had succeeded in a powerful act of nonviolent resistance: we made the world pay attention to the state-sponsored violence we endure here in Masafer Yatta on a daily basis. …..more