Barney Davis
The Independent / March 26, 2025
Hamdan Ballal accepted an Oscar as co-director of ‘No Other Land’ just three weeks ago.
An Oscar-winning Palestinian director attacked in the West Bank says he was held overnight in jail by Israeli soldiers he claimed mocked his award between beatings.
Just three weeks ago, Hamdan Ballal was given rapturous applause when he accepted the Academy Award for his film ‘No Other Land’.
Now he has spoken out about his ordeal that started on Monday, when his head was “kicked like a football” as he lay in the dirt during an attack by Jewish settlers on his home in the occupied area.
Ballal was attending a gathering for the end of the daily Ramadan fast near Hebron [Al-Khalil], when a group of masked men reportedly attacked him.
“In that precise moment, I thought about my family, who were at home,” Ballal told The Guardian. ‘‘I ran to them and told my wife, ‘Lock the house and keep the children inside.’ They could have attacked me, but by doing so they wouldn’t have harmed my family.’’
“The soldiers pointed their rifles at me while the settler from behind began beating me,” Ballal said.
“They threw me to the ground, and the settler started hitting me on the head. Then a soldier also began beating me; with the butt of his rifle, he struck me on the head. After that, he fired his weapon in the air. I don’t understand Hebrew, but I gathered that he said the next rifle shot would hit me. In that moment, I thought I was going to die.”
Ballal was dragged from an ambulance by the mob, according to co-director Yuval Abraham.
Israeli soldiers then detained him and two other Palestinians. Ballal said he was kept blindfolded for more than 20 hours, sitting on the floor under a blasting air conditioner.
The soldiers kicked, punched or hit him with a stick whenever they came on their guard shifts, he claimed. Ballal says he heard them saying his name and the word “Oscar.”
The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) have called his allegations “entirely baseless”.
Doctors at the hospital said Ballal had bruises and scratches all over his body, abrasions under his eye and a cut on his chin but no internal injuries. Two other detained Palestinians had minor injuries.
His co-director Yuval Abraham has hit out at the Academy for failing to protect his colleague or release a statement abhorring the violence against him.
He posted on X: “While Hamdan was clearly targeted for making No Other Land (he recalled soldiers joking about the Oscar as they tortured him), he was also targeted for being Palestinian—like countless others every day who are disregarded.
“This, it seems, gave the Academy an excuse to remain silent when a filmmaker they honoured, living under Israeli occupation, needed them the most.”
An IDF spokesperson said they had reviewed the case and denied claims detainees were beaten during the night.
“IDF forces facilitated medical treatment for the detainees after the initial transfer of the suspects to the Israel Police, and throughout the night, the detainees remained in a military detention facility while handcuffed in accordance with operational protocol,” they said.
“Yesterday morning, the three detainees were transferred by the IDF to the Israel Police for questioning on suspicion of rock hurling, property damage, and endangering regional security.
“Following their questioning, the three were released by the police under conditions that include a ban on contact with other individuals involved in the incident and personal bail. During the incident, an Israeli civilian was injured and required medical treatment. The investigation is ongoing, and further arrests are expected.”
Barney Davis – freelance journalist
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Oscar-winning Palestinian director attacked in ‘revenge’ for making West Bank film, colleagues say
Barney Davis
The Independent / March 25, 2025
No Other Land director Hamdan Ballal had blood on his clothes as he was released from Kiryat Arba police station on Tuesday, colleagues said.
An Oscar-winning director was attacked and abducted in “revenge” for highlighting the plight of displaced Palestinians in the West Bank, his colleagues have claimed.
Hamdan Ballal, co-director of ‘No Other Land’, was attending a gathering for the end of the daily Ramadan fast near Hebron [Al-Khalil] on Monday, when a group of settlers reportedly attacked. Ballal was dragged from an ambulance by the mob, according to co-director Yuval Abraham. Israeli police arrested three men, including Ballal, who was injured during the clashes.
Ballal had bruises on his face and blood on his clothes as he was escorted from the police station, according to witnesses. He was driven to a hospital in the neighbouring Palestinian city of Hebron, alongside two others.
On Tuesday, Abraham said: “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.”
Basel Adra, another co-director, witnessed the arrest and shared a picture of Ballal being treated in hospital after he was released.
“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.”
On Monday, Abraham shared dashcam footage on X that he said showed masked settlers who attacked Ballal. In the night-time clip you can see shadowy figures in the background before a woman holding a mobile phone flees. A masked man then hurls a brick at the camera and it cuts to black.
Lamia Ballal, the director’s wife, said she heard her husband being beaten outside their home as she huddled inside with their three children. She heard him screaming, “I’m dying” and calling for an ambulance.
When she looked out the window, she says she saw three men in uniform beating Ballal with the butts of their rifles and another person in civilian clothes who appeared to be filming the violence.
“Of course, after the Oscar, they have come to attack us more,” Lamia said. “I felt afraid.”
The Israeli military said it detained three Palestinians suspected of hurling rocks at forces and one Israeli civilian involved in a “violent confrontation” between Israelis and Palestinians — a claim witnesses disputed.
The military said it had transferred them to Israeli police for questioning and had evacuated an Israeli citizen from the area to receive medical treatment.
“No Other Land” follows Adra as he risks arrest to document the destruction of Masafer Yatta at the southern edge of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, joined by his co-director, Israeli journalist and filmmaker Abraham.
The critically acclaimed documentary, filmed over five years, depicts the alliance that develops between Adra and Abraham.
In his acceptance speech, Adra called on the world “to stop the injustice and to stop the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people.”
He said he hoped his newborn daughter would “not have to live the same life I am living now … Always feeling settler violence, home demolitions and forceful displacement.”
Barney Davis – freelance journalist
