Latest news with #Adra
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘No Other Land' Press Tour of West Bank Village Featured in Oscar-Winning Doc Halted by Israeli Army
Israeli soldiers on Monday blocked an international media tour organized by 'No Other Land' directors Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham in the occupied West Bank, preventing journalists from entering the village featured in their Oscar-winning doc. The doc depicts the Israeli government's efforts to force Palestinians to leave their homes in Masafer Yatta in the southern West Bank. The directors had invited a dozen local and international journalists to visit and witness reportedly worsening violence by Israeli settlers and demolitions at Adra's home village of At-Tuwani. But the journalists and a Palestinian Authority delegation were blocked by Israeli forces, who said they had a warrant to set up a checkpoint. More from Variety Movie Theater Owners Want to Vote for Oscars and Push to Join the Academy: 'We Watch Everything... It's a No Brainer' (EXCLUSIVE) How Hollywood Finds Its Stars: Behind the Scenes With Casting Directors, the Most Important and Least Understood Job in Movies From the Oscars Red Carpet to Open Heart Surgery: What Variety's Marc Malkin Wants You to Know About His Life-Saving Journey In a video posted by Abraham on social media, he is heard telling Israeli soldiers: 'You know that they are journalists. They're coming to see the destruction in Masafer Yatta, the way that you are destroying the community, the settler violence is dangerous.' An Israeli officer responds in the video that the ban on journalists crossing over into the West Bank is to maintain 'order' in the area. In the '90s, Masafer Yatta was designated as a live-fire training zone where the Israeli military exercises full control. The West Bank is home to roughly 3 million Palestinians, but also some 500,000 Israelis living in settlements that are considered illegal under international law. In March, only a few weeks after 'No Other Land' won the best documentary Oscar, Hamdan Ballal, a co-director on the doc along with Adra, Abraham and Rachel Szor, was attacked and heavily beaten by Israeli settlers near his village and then arrested and held overnight in an army facility. 'These police officers and soldiers that are here now to prevent the international media, not only do they not come to prevent the settler violence, often they partake in it,' Abraham told French news agency AFP, which was on the premises having been invited on the media tour. Abraham added that he has been trying to cling on to hope that the Oscar success of 'No Other Land' would help raise global awareness and stop the violence in Masafer Yatta. 'Unfortunately, the world now knows, but there is no action,' he told the AFP. Best of Variety What's Coming to Netflix in June 2025 New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week 'Harry Potter' TV Show Cast Guide: Who's Who in Hogwarts?
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Israeli Army Stops Press Tour Of Oscar-Winning ‘No Other Land' Villages
Israeli soldiers stopped international journalists from entering villages in the West Bank featured in the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, during a press tour on Monday organised by co-directors Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham. The pair had invited more than a dozen local and international journalists to visit Adra's home village of At-Tuwani, which lies within a collection of Bedouin villages in an area known as Masafer Yatta in the West Bank, to witness evidence of settler violence and army demolitions. More from Deadline Pro-Palestine Protesters Arrested At Gal Gadot's 'The Runner' London Filming Location Cherien Dabis Teams With May Odeh & Ina Fichman To Direct 'Sharon And My Mother-In-Law' Adaptation - Cannes Market How Alex Gibney And Billionaire Wendy Schmidt Forged A Plan To Keep "Impact Storytelling" Alive A video posted on X by Adra and Abraham shows a masked Israeli soldier telling the journalists to clear an area barred by a checkpoint in 10 minutes, threatening them with legal action if they fail to comply. Abraham is heard saying: 'You know that they are journalists. They're coming to see the destruction in Masafer Yatta, the way that you are destroying the community, the settler violence dangerous.' The soldier suggests the ban on the journalists crossing over into the West Bank is to maintain 'order' in the area. Adra interjects: 'We're going to my home inside. There will be no cars here. What's your problem? They're coming to my home in my village. Why don't you prevent the settlers when they come to burn the homes and the cars, and attacking people? Why only for journalists who are holding cameras and phones? Why?' A journalist's suggestion that the group proceed on foot rather than by car is turned down with the soldier repeating the ban is for the sake of 'order', to the bewilderment of many in the group. 'In this crossroads, no journalists and no guests and no hundreds of people to keep the order in the area… right here you are a public disturbance,' he says. Adra's villages is among collection of hamlets also including Hafaweh, Mirkez, Jimba and Susya, which lie on the Palestinian West Bank side of the 1949 Green Line. Their future has been at stake since Israel declared much of the land they are situated on a live-fire training zone in the 1980s, with their inhabitants coming under further pressure from the construction of illegal Israeli settlements on their doorstep such as Carmel and Ma'on. No Other Land which won the Best Documentary Academy award follows the journey of Adra as he documents the devastation of wreaked on Masafer Yatta and its Bedouin community over the years, and Israeli journalist Abraham's attempts to amplify this narrative. The work world-premiered at 2023 Berlinale, where it won the Audience Award and Berlinale Documentary Award. In the wake of the Oscar win, the inhabitants of the Masafer Yatta villages had hoped the award would help their cause as the documentary exposed the challenges they are facing to international audiences. Instead, there has been an uptick in settler violence, while Israel has stepped up its plans to clear the Bedouin villages, bulldozing the village of Khalet a-Daba on May 5. In March, just weeks after the documentary's Oscar win, Hamdan Ballal, a co-director on the film alongside Adra, Abraham and Rachel Szor, was attacked by a mob of Israeli settlers close to his his village and then arrested by soldiers and held overnight in an army facility. Best of Deadline Everything We Know About 'Nobody Wants This' Season 2 So Far List Of Hollywood & Media Layoffs From Paramount To Warner Bros Discovery To CNN & More Everything We Know About 'Happy Gilmore 2' So Far
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Israeli soldiers bar media from visiting West Bank villages on tour organized by Oscar winners
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli soldiers on Monday barred journalists from entering villages in the West Bank on a planned tour organized by the directors of the Oscar-winning movie 'No Other Land." The directors of the film, which focuses on Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territory, said they had invited the journalists on the tour Monday to interview residents about increasing settler violence in the area. In video posted on X by the film's co-director, Yuval Abraham, an Israeli soldier tells a group of international journalists there is "no passage' in the area because of a military order. Basel Adra, a Palestinian co-director of the film who lives in the area, said the military then blocked the journalists from entering two Palestinian villages they had hoped to visit. Israel's military said in a statement that entry into Khallet A-Daba, was banned because it was in a live-fire training zone. Tuwani, is not in the firing zone, but the military said it had barred 'individuals who might disrupt order from entering the area,' in order to 'maintain public order and prevent friction." 'They don't want the world to see what is happening here' 'They don't want journalists to visit the villages to meet the residents,' said Adra, who had invited the journalists to his home. 'It's clear they don't want the world to see what is happening here.' Some of the surrounding area, including a collection of small Bedouin villages known as Masafer Yatta, was declared by the military to be a live-fire training zone in the 1980s. Some 1,000 Palestinians have remained there despite being ordered out, and journalists, human rights activists and diplomats have visited the villages in the past. Palestinian residents in the area have reported increasing settler violence since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel and kickstarted the war in the Gaza Strip. Israeli soldiers regularly move in to demolish homes, tents, water tanks and olive orchards — and Palestinians fear outright expulsion could come at any time. Adra said the journalists were eventually able to enter one of the villages in Masafer Yatta, but were barred from entering Tuwani, the village where he lives, and Khallet A-Daba, where he had hoped to take them. Adra said settlers arrived in Khallet A-Daba Monday and took over some of the caves where village residents live, destroying residents' belongings and grazing hundreds of sheep on village lands. The military demolished much of the village last month. It said in a statement to AP that the structures in the village were built illegally and demolished after the residents had the chance to present their cases against demolition. Film won several awards 'No Other Land,' which won the Oscar this year for best documentary, chronicles the struggle by residents to stop the Israeli military from demolishing their villages. The joint Palestinian-Israeli production was directed by Adra, Hamdan Ballal, another Palestinian activist from Masafer Yatta, along with Israeli directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor. The film has won a string of international awards. Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. The Palestinians want all three for their future state and view settlement growth as a major obstacle to a two-state solution. Israel has built well over 100 settlements, home to over 500,000 settlers who have Israeli citizenship. The 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank live under seemingly open-ended Israeli military rule, with the Western-backed Palestinian Authority administering population centers. ___ Follow AP's war coverage at Julia Frankel, The Associated Press
Yahoo
13 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Israeli soldiers bar visits to West Bank villages on tour organized by 'No Other Land' Oscar winners
Israeli soldiers on Monday barred journalists from entering villages in the West Bank on a planned tour organized by the directors of the Oscar-winning movie . The directors of the deeply compassionate and powerful documentary, which focuses on the systematic Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, said they had invited the journalists on the tour to interview residents about increasing settler violence in the area. In video posted on X by the film's co-director, Yuval Abraham, an Israeli soldier tells a group of international journalists there is "no passage' in the area because of a military order. Basel Adra, a Palestinian co-director of the film who lives in the area, said the military then blocked the journalists from entering two Palestinian villages they had hoped to visit. 'They don't want journalists to visit the villages to meet the residents,' said Adra, who had invited the journalists to his home. 'It's clear they don't want the world to see what is happening here.' Some of the surrounding area, including a collection of small Bedouin villages known as Masafer Yatta, was declared by the military to be a live-fire training zone in the 1980s. Some 1,000 Palestinians have remained there despite being ordered out, and journalists, human rights activists and diplomats have visited the villages in the past. Palestinian residents in the area have reported increasing settler violence since 7 October 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel and kickstarted the war in the Gaza Strip. Israeli soldiers regularly move in to demolish homes, tents, water tanks and olive orchards — and Palestinians fear outright expulsion could come at any time. Adra said the journalists were eventually able to enter one of the villages in Masafer Yatta, but were barred from entering Tuwani, the village where he lives, and Khallet A-Daba, where he had hoped to take them. Adra said settlers arrived in Khallet A-Daba Monday and took over some of the caves where village residents live, destroying residents' belongings and grazing hundreds of sheep on village lands. The military demolished much of the village last month. No Other Land, which won the Oscar this year for Best Documentary, chronicles the struggle by residents to stop the Israeli military from demolishing their villages. The joint Palestinian-Israeli production was directed by Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Palestinian activist from Masafer Yatta, and Israeli directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor. The film also won Best Documentary at the Berlinale, with Adra using his acceptance speech to say that it was difficult to celebrate while his Palestinian compatriots in Gaza were being 'slaughtered and massacred.' He called on Germany 'to respect the UN calls and stop sending weapons to Israel.' Abraham, then took to the stage: 'We are standing in front of you. Now, we are the same age. I am Israeli, Basel is Palestinian. And in two days, we go back to a land where we are not equal.' He continued: 'I am under civilian law; Basel is under military law. We live 30 minutes from one another but I have voting rights. Basel does not have voting rights. I am free to move where I want in this land. Basel, like millions of Palestinians, is locked in the occupied West Bank. This situation of apartheid between us, this inequality, has to end.' At the time, the speeches of Abraham and Adra were criticized by the Mayor of Berlin, Kai Wegner - of the Christian Democratic Union party. On X, he wrote: 'Anti-Semitism has no place in Berlin, and that also applies to the art scene. I expect the new management of the Berlinale to ensure that such incidents do not happen again.' This led to a massive backlash, and this year, the new Berlinale director Trcia Tuttle addressed the controversy around the film, defending the No Other Land filmmakers by saying that 'discourse which suggests this film or its filmmakers are antisemitic creates danger for all of them, inside and outside of Germany, and it is important that we stand together and support them.'
Euronews
14 hours ago
- Politics
- Euronews
Israeli soldiers bar West Bank tour organized by Oscar winners
Israeli soldiers on Monday barred journalists from entering villages in the West Bank on a planned tour organized by the directors of the Oscar-winning movie No Other Land. The directors of the deeply compassionate and powerful documentary, which focuses on the systematic Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, said they had invited the journalists on the tour to interview residents about increasing settler violence in the area. In video posted on X by the film's co-director, Yuval Abraham, an Israeli soldier tells a group of international journalists there is "no passage' in the area because of a military order. Basel Adra, a Palestinian co-director of the film who lives in the area, said the military then blocked the journalists from entering two Palestinian villages they had hoped to visit. 'They don't want journalists to visit the villages to meet the residents,' said Adra, who had invited the journalists to his home. 'It's clear they don't want the world to see what is happening here.' Some of the surrounding area, including a collection of small Bedouin villages known as Masafer Yatta, was declared by the military to be a live-fire training zone in the 1980s. Some 1,000 Palestinians have remained there despite being ordered out, and journalists, human rights activists and diplomats have visited the villages in the past. Palestinian residents in the area have reported increasing settler violence since 7 October 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel and kickstarted the war in the Gaza Strip. Israeli soldiers regularly move in to demolish homes, tents, water tanks and olive orchards — and Palestinians fear outright expulsion could come at any time. Adra said the journalists were eventually able to enter one of the villages in Masafer Yatta, but were barred from entering Tuwani, the village where he lives, and Khallet A-Daba, where he had hoped to take them. Adra said settlers arrived in Khallet A-Daba Monday and took over some of the caves where village residents live, destroying residents' belongings and grazing hundreds of sheep on village lands. The military demolished much of the village last month. No Other Land, which won theOscar this year for Best Documentary, chronicles the struggle by residents to stop the Israeli military from demolishing their villages. The joint Palestinian-Israeli production was directed by Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Palestinian activist from Masafer Yatta, and Israeli directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor. The film also won Best Documentary at the Berlinale, with Adra using his acceptance speech to say that it was difficult to celebrate while his Palestinian compatriots in Gaza were being 'slaughtered and massacred.' He called on Germany 'to respect the UN calls and stop sending weapons to Israel.' Abraham, then took to the stage: 'We are standing in front of you. Now, we are the same age. I am Israeli, Basel is Palestinian. And in two days, we go back to a land where we are not equal.' He continued: 'I am under civilian law; Basel is under military law. We live 30 minutes from one another but I have voting rights. Basel does not have voting rights. I am free to move where I want in this land. Basel, like millions of Palestinians, is locked in the occupied West Bank. This situation of apartheid between us, this inequality, has to end.' At the time, the speeches of Abraham and Adra were criticized by the Mayor of Berlin, Kai Wegner - of the Christian Democratic Union party. On X, he wrote: 'Anti-Semitism has no place in Berlin, and that also applies to the art scene. I expect the new management of the Berlinale to ensure that such incidents do not happen again.' This led to a massive backlash, and this year, the new Berlinale director Trcia Tuttle addressed the controversy around the film, defending the No Other Land filmmakers by saying that 'discourse which suggests this film or its filmmakers are antisemitic creates danger for all of them, inside and outside of Germany, and it is important that we stand together and support them.' American actress Renée Victor, who voiced the scene-stealing, sandal-throwing Abuelita in Disney's animated hit film Coco and played the wisecracking Lupita in the TV show Weeds has died aged 86. Victor's death was confirmed on Monday by a representative, Julie Smith, who said the actress had lymphoma for several years. She died Friday at her home in Sherman Oaks, California, Smith said, with family by her side. Victor appeared in 22 episodes of Weeds as sassy housekeeper Lupita between 2005 and 2012, among many other TV credits including ER, Matlock and The Addams Family. But she was perhaps best known for her voice work on Coco, the 2017 gem that explored death through the journey of a young Mexican boy to the land of the dead. A post on the Instagram feed of Pixar, which produced Coco, said: 'We are heartbroken to hear of the passing of Renée Victor, the voice (of) Abuelita in 'Coco' and an incredible part of the Pixar family. We will always remember you.' Born in San Antonio, Texas, on 25 July 1938, Victor began her performing career as a singer and dancer. She moved to Los Angeles in the 1960s, according to biography material provided by her representatives, where she launched her career singing with prominent big band leaders Xavier Cugat and Pérez Prado. She also taught Latin dancing, including salsa and tango. She met her future husband, Ray, during that period, and from 1963 to 1973, they performed together as 'Ray & Renée,' a variety show took them around the world. By the '80s, she had moved into TV and film work. Her film credits included The Doctor with William Hurt (1991), The Apostle (1997) directed by and starring Robert Duvall and A Night in Old Mexico (2013), also with Duvall. In 2004, she had a recurring role as Florina Lopez on TV's ER, and the following year was cast in Weeds. Other series credits included Snowpiercer (2020-2021), Mayans M.C. (2022), Dead to Me (2020-2022), and With Love (2021-2023). Her final film role was in 2023's Moe. Victor is survived by her daughters, Raquel and Margo Victor.
