Hayim Katsman was not involved in making ‘No Other Land.’ So why are some of the film’s critics saying he was?
A rumor about an Israeli peace activist killed by Hamas on Oct. 7 illustrates how misinformation spreads online
Hayim Katsman, left, was an Israeli peace activist with a Ph.D. who was murdered by Hamas militants on Oct. 7. Despite online rumors, he had nothing to do with the Oscar-winning team of No Other Land, right. Photo by Kevin Winter via Getty Images/courtesy of Hannah Wacholder Katsman
By Samuel Eli Shepherd March 10, 2025
After No Other Land won the Oscar for best documentary last weekend, some critics online said the filmmakers forgot to thank a crucial player in the film’s production.
“1. Hayim Katsman was a peace activist in Israel who volunteered to help film ‘No Other Land’ that just won the Oscar for best documentary,” posted the Israel advocacy account Hamas Atrocities on the social platform X (formerly Twitter) Monday. “2. Hayim was murdered by Hamas terrorists on October 7th. 3. Yuval Abraham, the Israeli director of the film, didn’t mention Hayim in his Oscar acceptance speech.”
By the end of the week, pro-Israel social media influencers, nonprofits and even American and Israeli news outlets had all spread the idea that Katsman had worked on the Oscar-winning documentary. They also lambasted Abraham for not mentioning Katsman in his speech.
Except there is no evidence that Katsman, an American-Israeli peace activist and a resident of Kibbutz Holit who was indeed murdered by Hamas on Oct. 7, was involved in the production of No Other Land. The documentary’s credits do not mention Katsman’s name. Co-director Yuval Abraham called his involvement in the documentary “fake news.”
“He was not involved in making the film,” Abraham told me via a direct message on X.
On Tuesday, Hayim’s mother, Hannah Wacholder Katsman, published a Facebook post dispelling the rumor, and she asked that news outlets stop spreading the misinformation about her late son.
“As far as I know, Hayim z”l was not involved in making ˆ and there is no need to be outraged on his behalf,” she wrote in the post. “And whoever uses language like ‘but Hamas killed them anyway,’ shame on you.”
No Other Land was filmed in Masafer Yatta, a region in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and the film revolves around a Palestinian activist who risks displacement as his home village is being encroached upon by the Israel Defense Forces.
Speaking over the phone this weekend, Hannah said she found the rumor ridiculous, but she had a strong sense as to where the misinformation stemmed from, and why it spread.
“He was part of a group of activists that would go to Masafer Yatta on the weekends,” Hannah said — an activity she only learned about after her son’s death. “Their goal was to document and to deter settler violence.”
After Hayim died, a group of activists — “mostly younger Americans, based in Jerusalem,” she said — attended the funeral. “I even got a call from one of the Palestinians who lived in Masafer Yatta expressing condolences,” she said.
Hannah went on to explain how after No Other Land won the Oscar, she then posted a photo of him volunteering in the region on a private Facebook group, which somehow ended up spreading beyond the group.
The photo was then re-shared multiple times by different accounts to insinuate that Katsman had either inspired or volunteered directly on the film.
“One of the Israelis who helped make the movie ‘No Other Land’ was murdered by the Palestinians on Oct. 7 and he wasn’t even mentioned at the Oscars,” posted Adin Haykin, an Israeli influencer and activist, in a now-deleted X post.
“Hayim did a lot of things in life. He had a lot of interests and careers, but as far as I know, he wasn’t a filmmaker,” Hannah told me. She hadn’t seen No Other Land yet, but she said, “I don’t want Hayim’s name to be used to claim that the film is antisemitic.”
Hannah said that correcting the misinformation once it had already spread online has been taxing. She said that several news outlets refused to delete their initial articles, even after she had shared her Facebook post, or after she had reached out personally to correct the record.
“This is how we got Trump, right?” Hannah said. “People taking a half-truth or an association — an association between Yuval Abraham and Hayim that’s true — and they took it and twisted it in a way to support a particular agenda,” Hannah said. “It’s an association between X and Y and you turn it into a narrative that outrages people.”
The other kernel of truth that inspired rumor? Abraham indeed knew Hayim from his activism, but they did not work together on the film.
“I didn’t know Hayim well, only that he was an activist in Masafer Yatta,” Abraham told me via direct message on X. Abraham saw the rumor as disrespectful to both Hayim’s family and his work as a peace activist.
“Several Israeli anti-occupation activists were murdered on October 7th,” the filmmaker wrote. “I’m not sure if those trying to smear No Other Land care, but I would worry that cynically using their deaths to prevent crucial criticism of the occupation is disrespectful of what they stood for in their lives.”
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism so that we can be prepared for whatever news 2025 brings.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
