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Israeli-Palestinian documentary No Other Land’s Oscar win has been celebrated by many, but not Jerusalem-born singer Saint Levant who is disappointed over the celebrations because Israelis are part of the film too.

The documentary follows the alliance that develops between Palestinian activist Basel Adra and Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham as Adra resists the forcible displacement of his people in Masafer Yatta. The film shows Israeli soldiers tearing down homes and evicting residents to create a military training zone.

The singer, who has Palestinian heritage, took to Instagram to highlight that an Israeli on the Academy Award stage talking about October 7, 2023 was “just so wrong” and that “it makes it seem like the way we will be liberated is by holding hands with our colonisers which is called ‘normalisation’.”

The ‘Exile’ singer said, “Israelis want you to believe that we just need to love each other, understand each other, and everything will be alright. They want you to believe this is two equal sides that just need to ‘talk it out’.”

Saint Levant admitted that when he was younger, he engaged in normalising media and was “pretty much ‘used’ by Israelis to try and humanise themselves”. He added that he learned from his mistakes and apologised several times because the normalisation was wrong, counterproductive and took away from “real liberation efforts”.

In a second story, the singer clarified that he would never hate on Palestinian success and gave all his love to Adra, the Palestinian filmmaker behind the documentary.

“What makes me emotional is the fact that it has to be an ’Israel-Palestinian production for it to win. We need to be present alongside our oppressors to be heard. We need to be shepherded onto the stage by the same people who have colonised us for 100 years in order to be seen as humans.

“We will achieve liberation, but not like this.”