Israel releases Palestinian director of Oscar-winning documentary attacked by settlers

BarcelonaPalestinian activist, photographer and filmmaker Hamdan Ballal, one of the four directors of the documentary No other land, who won an Oscar a few weeks ago, has been released by Israeli authorities. Ballal was arrested on Monday after a group of Israeli settlers attacked him in the town of Susiya, in the southern West Bank, where the events depicted in the film took place.

Another of the documentary's directors, Yuval Abraham, announced this in a tweet: "After being handcuffed all night and beaten at a military base, Hamdan Ballal has been released and is returning home to his family."

It was Abraham who announced the beating and arrest of his companion on Monday night. "A group of settlers just lynched Hamdan Ballal," Abraham wrote in X. "They beat him and injured his head and stomach. Soldiers intercepted the ambulance he had requested and took it away. We haven't heard from him since."

According to the film's production company, the incident occurred in the village of Ballal, Susya, in the Masafer Yatta area, around 6 p.m. A dozen Israeli settlers reportedly attacked the village, injuring residents and damaging homes. "The group of attackers arrived with batons, knives, and at least one assault rifle," the statement said. "Many were masked. Five American Jewish activists went to the scene to document the attack and were violently attacked by the settlers, who threw stones at their vehicle. One of the activists, Anna Lipman, recorded this settler attack." in a video shared by Yuval Abraham.

The other Palestinian co-director of No other land and star of the film, Basel Adra, has also denounced the attack on Hamdan Ballal. "I am with Karam, Hamdan's seven-year-old son, close to his father's blood, in his home, after the settlers attacked him," he wrote in X. Hamdan, co-director of No other land, remains missing after the soldiers carried him away, wounded and bleeding. This is how they erase Masafer Yatta."

Masafer Yatta is a group of twelve villages home to some 2,500 Palestinians, mostly shepherds and farmers, in Area C, the part of the occupied West Bank that, according to the Oslo Accords, is under Israeli military and administrative control. For decades, its inhabitants have struggled against house demolition orders and settler attacks. No other land tells the story of the Palestinian community of Masafer Yatta through the figure of Basel Adra, a young Palestinian journalist and activist from the community.

Since the documentary won the Oscar, the group of Palestinian and Israeli activists Standing Together has organized screenings in Tel Aviv and other cities in the country, against the orders of the Israeli Minister of Culture, Miki Zohar, who asked cinemas in Israel. In fact, when No other land won the Oscar, Zohar stated that it was "a sad moment for the world of cinema" and accused the directors of creating an "abstract and partial" portrait that served as an "anti-Israeli propaganda tool."

In his speech to the Hollywood Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Yuval Abraham denounced the genocide of the Palestinians at Masafer Yatta. "We demand that the world take serious action to end the injustice and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people," said the Israeli director.