Hamdan Ballal, a Palestinian filmmaker behind the Oscar-winning documentary “No Other Land,” has been released by Israeli forces after being assaulted by settlers in the West Bank and detained by soldiers on Monday, his lawyer said.
Ballal was attacked by a group of Israeli settlers who invaded the Palestinian village of Susiya, the lawyer, Lea Tsemel, told NBC News. According to his co-director, Yuval Abraham, who reported the attack on X, Ballal sustained injuries to his head and stomach.
Ballal and two other Palestinians who were detained with him were released Tuesday afternoon from police custody, according to Tsemel. They were not charged with any crimes, Tsemel said.
Journalists with The Associated Press reported seeing bruises on Ballal’s face and blood on his clothes as he was released. Ballal and the two other Palestinians who were detained were transported to a nearby hospital, the AP reported.
Five activists from the Center for Jewish Nonviolence who were at the scene told The Guardian that dozens of masked settlers — some of whom were armed — entered Susiya after nightfall, accompanied by Israeli soldiers. They threw stones at Ballal’s house, chased him to his home, beat him, and then handed him to the military, the activists said. They threw stones at Ballal’s house, chased him to his home, beat him and then handed him to the military, the activists said.
Ballal’s wife told reporters that she was inside their house with their three children at the time of the alleged attack. She said she heard her husband screaming, “I’m dying!” and that she witnessed three men in uniform beating him with the butts of their rifles.
The CJNV activists, who are Jewish American, said Israeli police officers who arrived at the scene in a car “refused to get out of the vehicle and intervene” and instead began interrogating the activists.
Ballal was handcuffed and blindfolded, bleeding from the head, and he was moved to a military vehicle, The Guardian reported.
A spokesperson with the Israeli Defense Forces told NBC News there were “violent clashes” between Israelis and Palestinians near Susiya that erupted after “several terrorists threw stones at Israeli civilians and damaged their vehicles.”
The spokesperson said Israeli soldiers and police had stones thrown at them when they arrived at the scene, adding:
In response, the forces arrested three Palestinians suspected of throwing stones at the force and an Israeli citizen who was involved in the violent clashes. The detainees were taken to the Israel Police for further questioning. An Israeli citizen who was injured in the incident was taken for medical treatment.
Ballal and the other two Palestinians denied throwing stones, Tsemel told NBC News.
There has been an uptick in Israeli settler violence in the West Bank since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack in Israel. Activists have said Israeli forces have been documented allowing and even participating in the violence against Palestinian residents.
Tsemel told NBC News that it was a “ritual” for Israeli settlers, some with criminal pasts, to harass Palestinian villagers and then call the police and the army on them, often resulting in beatings and detention. “Especially now that I am sure that he is a target because of the film,” Tsemel said of Ballal.
“No Other Land” chronicles the Israeli forces’ yearslong destruction of Masafer Yatta and other nearby Palestinian villages. Directed by a Palestinian-Israeli collective, the documentary won an Academy Award earlier this year; its creators took the stage together and spoke plainly about the brutality of the Israeli occupation.
Basel Adra, a Masafer Yatta resident who starred in and co-directed the film, has similarly suggested that the global reception to their acclaimed work has made them an even bigger target.
“We came back from the Oscars and every day since there is an attack on us,” Adra told The Guardian. “This might be their revenge on us for making the movie. It feels like a punishment.”
