Hamdan Ballal, one of the Oscar-winning directors of “No Other Land,” has reportedly been detained by Israeli troops after being injured in an attack by Israeli settlers. The IDF has confirmed four arrests.
A Palestinian Oscar-winning film director was attacked and injured by Israeli settlers and then detained by Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank on Monday, according to reports.
Hamdan Ballal is one of two Palestinians who co-directed the acclaimed documentary “No Other Land,” alongside two Israeli directors.
The Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that four Palestinians, including Ballal, were injured during an attack on the village of Susya, near Hebron, in which radical Jewish settlers threw stones at residents and their houses and cars.
The Israeli military said it arrested three Palestinians and an Israeli following an altercation involving rock-hurling, without naming Ballal.
What did ‘No Other land’ co-directors say?
According to Ballal’s Israeli colleague Yuval Abraham, Ballal sustained “injuries [to] his head and stomach” and was “bleeding.”
Activists and observers then said that Israeli soldiers took Ballal out of the ambulance he had called and detained him.
“No sign of him since,” wrote Abraham on social media.
Basel Adra, the other Palestinian co-director of the film, posted on X that Ballal was “still missing after soldiers abducted him.”
Israel denies ambulance claims
In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that three Palestinians and an Israeli civilian had been arrested but refuted that anyone had been “apprehended from inside an ambulance.”
They claimed that “several terrorists hurled rocks at Israeli citizens” after which “a violent confrontation broke out, involving mutual rock-hurling.”
The IDF added that those arrested were taken to Israeli police for further questioning. An Israeli citizen was meanwhile evacuated from the scene to receive medical treatment.
Abraham shared a video on X purportedly showing masked Israeli settlers throwing rocks and attacking Ballal.
What is ‘No Other Land’?
“No Other Land” is an Israeli-Palestinian documentary about the demolition of Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank.
Earlier this month, it won the Oscar for best documentary as well as the Berlinale Documentary Film Award last year, among other prizes.
Co-director Adra suggested to the AP that the violence may be linked to the documentary’s international recognition.
“We came back from the Oscars, and every day since there is an attack on us,” Adra said. “This might be their revenge on us for making the movie. It feels like a punishment.”
The Oscar win stirred wide controversy, including in Israel.
Israel’s Culture Minister Miki Zohar, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s conservative Likud party, called the Oscar award “a sad moment for the world of cinema.”
Edited by: Rana Taha
DW News
