Palestinian filmmaker Basel Adra, who won an Oscar this year for co-directing a documentary on alleged Israeli violence in the West Bank, on Thursday told the UN that the situation was worsening in the affected areas of Palestine despite his film winning awards and garnering critical acclaim.

Adra’s film No Other Land, co-directed by Hamdan Ballal, was screened at the UN on Thursday, days after Ballal was attacked by Israeli settlers and allegedly tortured at an Israeli army base.

“I wanted the world to know that we live in this land, that we exist, and to see what we face on a daily basis, under this brutal occupation,” Adra said during his address to the UN Committee on the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.

The documentary No Other Land chronicles the forced displacement of Palestinians by Israeli troops and settlers in Masafer Yatta, an area Israel declared a restricted military zone in the 1980s.

Besra co-directed No Other Land along with Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham, fellow Palestinian filmmaker-activist Hamdan Ballal, and Israeli cinematographer, editor and director Rachel Szor.

“I started filming what was happening to my village and the villages around me, to me and my family — all the violence from the settlers and the Israeli Army,” Adra told the UN.

No Other Land follows the story of a character played by Adra, a young Palestinian activist, who has been resisting the displacement of his community by Israel's military forces in Masafer Yatta. He records the gradual destruction of his homeland, where Israeli soldiers tore down homes and evicted inhabitants. During his journey, he befriends Yuval, a Jewish Israeli journalist, who helps him.

“Even after winning the Oscar, we went back to the same reality,” Adra said, adding that the situation was changing from bad to worse.

“Almost every day, there are attacks on Masafer Yatta and all over communities across the West Bank,” Adra said.

Gaza, a separate Palestinian territory, has witnessed a spike in attacks by Israeli settlers in the West Bank lately, claim rights groups.

After a prolonged legal battle, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled in 2022 in favour of the Israeli army, allowing the expulsion of residents from eight villages in the Masafer Yatta, a collection of 19 villages with mostly Palestinian residents.

Occupied by Israel since 1967, the West Bank is home to around three million Palestinians. Nearly half a million Israelis also live in West Bank settlements that are illegal under international law.

No Other Land, despite winning a prestigious Oscar, has struggled to find distribution in the United States, screening at only a select few theatres.