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The Palestinian co-director of the Oscar-winning film No Other Land, Hamdan Ballal, was reportedly assaulted by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank. Afterward, he was taken into custody by Israeli soldiers and spent the night detained, as reported by his family, friends, colleagues, eyewitnesses, and lawyer.
Following his release on Tuesday afternoon, Ballal’s lawyer, Leah Tzemel, stated that he had been “arbitrarily” held by police in Kiryat Arba’a, an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, and was subjected to physical assault while in custody by Israeli soldiers.
Following his release, he was moved to a hospital in Hebron, where he was treated for his injuries, according to his brother, Nimer.
“We tried to retreat to the car, and they hit me with sticks,” she recounted, noting that the settlers also vandalized the vehicle by breaking several windows and flattening a tire. Video footage from the car’s dash camera shared by CJNV captures a masked person hurling a rock at the windshield, and photos reveal shattered glass inside the vehicle.
Josh Kimelman, a Jewish American whose father is Israeli, was in the same group. He said that Israeli soldiers witnessed the incident but did nothing to prevent it.
“We told them that they attacked us,” Kimelman said. “They said everything will be fine and then stood by us and didn’t follow the settlers.”
Kimelman said that similar attacks happen frequently, but they don’t always get as much attention as they should.
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“They don’t always involve an Oscar-winning filmmaker,” he said.
“There’s no accountability for settlers who commit violence,” he added.
Earlier this month, Ballal, Adra and Abraham had all stood alongside each other to accept the Oscar for best documentary. The joint Israeli-Palestinian team’s film recounts the eviction of Palestinians from their homes in the occupied West Bank.
No Other Land documents the continued demolition by Israeli authorities of Masafer Yatta, a collection of villages in the Hebron mountains of the West Bank where Adra lives with his family.
The documentary highlights the Israeli government’s efforts to evict the villagers by force, with viewers seeing the local playground being torn down, the killing of Adra’s brother by Israeli soldiers, and other attacks by Jewish settlers while the community tries to survive.
