Academy Award-winning filmmaker Basel Adra told a U.N. committee Thursday that despite "winning an Oscar earlier this year, demolitions and violence in Palestinian communities persist, with conditions worsening."
Adra, who co-directed "No Other Land," said he began filming to document demolitions and illegal Israeli settler violence because he "felt that this is not even interesting for a lot of journalists to come to write about what's happening."
"For us, it's not a routine. For the families who are losing their homes and for those who are suffering, it's not a routine," Adra said.
Saying that he "wanted the world to know that we live in this land, that we exist," Adra said he "wanted everyone to see what we face on a daily basis under this brutal occupation."
"But even after winning the Oscar, we went back to the same reality in Palestine," Adra said, calling it "the reality that's only changing from worse to worse."
Citing the detention of one of the film's directors, Hamdan Ballal, he stated that "two (Israeli) soldiers and the (illegal Israeli) settlers started beating him up with their guns and with their legs ... and then abducted him, preventing him from having any medical treatment."
Adra said Ballal was blindfolded and handcuffed for 20 hours.
He called Israeli actions "state policy" to displace Palestinians. "The goal is very clear – taking over our land to build illegal settlements and outposts ... with Israeli soldiers and police complicit and providing impunity," he said.
Saying that Palestinians are blocked from building homes, schools and infrastructure, he said illegal Israeli settlements continue expanding.
"We will keep working until we reach our freedom and live on our land with freedom and dignity," Adra said, urging accountability for Israeli forces and illegal settlers.
