Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal has reportedly been released after being arrested by the Israeli army following an attack on his home in Susya by masked settlers.
Ballal is one of the directors of No Other Land, the 2024 film documenting the destruction of the occupied West Bank's Masafer Yatta that won the Academy Award for Best Documentary earlier this month. The filmmaker had appeared on stage at the ceremony to accept the award alongside his co-directors Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra and Rachel Szor.
The news of the attack on Ballal was first broken by Abraham, who took to the social media platform formerly known as Twitter yesterday (March 24), writing, "A group of settlers just lynched Hamdan Ballal, co director of our film no other land. 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."
After clarifying that "lynched" was a mistranslation from Hebrew and that Ballal had instead been "assaulted and beaten up," his co-director claimed that he was being held at a police station in a settlement. About an hour ago, Abraham provided an update, writing, "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."
As The Guardian reports, a group of five Jewish American activists witnessed the attack on Ballal, allegedly carried out by around 15 armed settlers.
"They started throwing stones towards Palestinians and destroyed a water tank near Hamdan's house," Joseph, one of the Center for Jewish Nonviolence activists, told the publication, with another adding that the settlers destroyed Ballal's car with stones and slashed his tires.
In a statement, the IDF said there was a violent confrontation between Palestinians and Israelis after "terrorists" threw rocks at Israeli citizens. They wrote, "The forces apprehended three Palestinians suspected of hurling rocks at them, as well as an Israeli civilian involved in the violent confrontation. The detainees were taken for further questioning by the Israel Police."
Adra, another of Ballal and Abraham's co-directors, told The Guardian that the escalation in settler violence might have been a response to the documentary's international recognition.
A group of settlers just lynched Hamdan Ballal, co director of our film no other land. 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.
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.
