Hamdan Ballal, a filmmaker who was part of the Israeli and Palestinian team that won an Oscar for the searing Israeli occupation documentary No Other
Hamdan Ballal, a filmmaker who was part of the Israeli and Palestinian team that won an Oscar for the searing Israeli occupation documentary No Other Land, is free after allegedly being attacked by West Bank settlers and arrested by Israeli forces on Monday evening.
“After being handcuffed all night and beaten in a military base, Hamdan Ballal is now free and is about to go home to his family,” Israeli journalist and No Other Land co-director Yuval Abraham said of his Palestinian collaborator on Tuesday. On Monday, Abraham wrote on X that Ballal had been attacked and taken by the Israeli military: “A group of settlers just lynched Hamdan Ballal,” he wrote. “They beat him and he has injuries in his head and stomach, bleeding. Soldiers invaded the ambulance he called, and took him. No sign of him since.”
Abraham later told NBC News that he was not present for the alleged attack, but had learned the details from local Palestinian eyewitnesses and activists who were on the scene.
Basel Adra, another of Ballal’s co-directors, told the Associated Press that Israeli settlers descended upon the Palestinian village of Susiya on Monday shortly after residents broke the daily rapid for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. He says that roughly two dozen settlers—some outfitted in masks, others in Israeli army uniforms, and some toting weaponry—attacked the village.
Josh Kimelman, one of the activists at the site, claims “that a group of 10–20 masked settlers with stones and sticks also assaulted activists with the Center for Jewish Nonviolence, smashing their car windows and slashing tires to make them flee the area, one of the activists at the scene,” as reported by the AP. Video provided by the organization to the outlet reportedly supports this account.
The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement posted to X that a “violent clash” broke out between Palestinians and Israelis and that it involved “mutual stone-throwing.” Three Palestinians and one Israeli were arrested, the statement said, after members of security were struck with rocks.
As reported by the Associated Press, Ballal was one of three Palestinians detained by the Israeli military in his home village, according to attorney Lea Tsemel, who is representing them. Authorities allegedly told Tsemel that Ballal and the others were being held at a military base for medical treatment, but she had received no further information about their location as of Tuesday morning.
“We demand Ballal’s immediate release and that his family and community be informed about his condition, location and the justification for his detention,” said the International Documentary Association in a statement on Monday night. A petition calling for Ballal’s freedom had reached more than 6,000 signatures as of press time, signed by filmmakers including Roger Ross Williams, Alex Gibney, Christine Vachon, and Liz Garbus.
Adra said he witnessed Ballal being detained by soldiers, who reportedly handcuffed and blindfolded him before forcing him into a military vehicle. He told the AP that Ballal’s blood was still splattered on the ground outside his own doorstep. “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 alleged assault arrived three weeks after No Other Land won the Academy Award for best documentary. While accepting the honor, directors Abraham, Adra, Ballal, and Rachel Szor openly criticized US foreign policy on the Israel-Hamas war. “About two months ago, I became a father,” Adra said onstage, “and my hope to my daughter [is] that she will not have to live the same life I’m living now—always fearing settlers’ violence, home demolitions and forceful displacements that my community, Masafer Yatta, is living and facing every day under the Israeli occupation. No Other Land reflects the harsh reality that we have been enduring for decades and still resist, as we call on the world to take serious actions to stop the injustice and to stop the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people.”
Hailed as one of the best films of the year by Vanity Fair’s chief critic Richard Lawson, No Other Land earned various documentary jury and audience prizes on the festival circuit after its Berlin debut, but has not yet received US distribution.
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