Israeli University Cancels the Screening of ‘No Other Land’ Documentary Due To Press
University of Haifa buildings. Photo: X/ @ZivBenZion1
April 6, 2025 Hour: 1:39 pm
The University of Haifa, northern Israel, cancelled this Sunday the screening scheduled for Monday of ‘No Other Land’, Oscar-winning documentary about the Israeli occupation of the West Bank.
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“Do you want to understand how difficult the situation is? The University of Haifa, the academic institution with the largest Jewish-Arab mix in Israel, has just informed us that it has canceled the planned screening of the Oscar winner ‘No Other Land’,” wrote Alon Lee Green, co-founder of the Israeli pacifist NGO Standing Together, on the social network X.
“The University of Haifa chose today, in a cowardly move, to succumb to the pressures of the extreme right and to cancel the screening of the Oscar-winning documentary “There is no other country.” The decision to hide from the student public a internationally recognized documentary film does not meet any academic, moral or democratic standard, and it severely violates freedom of expression and academic freedom – a fundamental principle in any educational institution in a democratic country,” said the NGO in other statement.
The organization also highlighted that they will not be silent in the face of this step. “We will continue to struggle until the screening is possible, and until the student and student public can watch the film and be exposed to the harsh reality it presents – because this is the role of the Academy: To challenge, inspire discourse and protect the space in which it exists.”
Standing Together, which organized this and other screenings at its headquarters throughout the country, says that the university claims to be awaiting approval from the Israeli Film Review Board, which reports to the Ministry of Culture and Sport.
Following the documentary’s victory at the Oscars, the Israeli Minister of Culture, Miki Zohar, asked cinemas and cultural institutions in the country not to show the film, which he accused of “serving the enemies of the State,” in a letter reported by local media.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz, which had access to the University of Haifa’s statement, reports that the institution focuses on the fact that the Council has not approved the film, although it recalls that its guidelines apply to commercial screenings and not to educational events.
Zionist organizations like Im Tirtzu or B’Tsalmo criticized the screening, calling the event “extreme” or “propaganda against Israel.”
‘No Other Land’, co-directed by Israeli Palestinians, covers five years of recordings (2019-2023) in the home of Palestinian journalist Basel Adra in the group of villages in Masafer Yatta, in the occupied West Bank, in which they show the demolitions of homes, schools, water wells, and roads by the Israeli Army, which continue to this day.
Autor: ACJ
Fuente: EFE