Oscar-winning Palestinian director Hamdan Ballal released by Israeli authorities after attack

With bruises on his face and blood on his clothes, Ballal was released from an Israeli police station in Kiryat Arba, the West Bank settlement, today. He and two other Palestinians were attacked and detained yesterday and then taken to a nearby hospital.

“I was blindfolded for 24 hours, Ballal said. “All the night I was freezing. It was a room, I couldn’t see anything… I heard the voice of soldiers laughing about me.”

The Palestinian director said he was held in an army base and forced to sleep under a freezing air conditioner.

Ballal, won Best Documentary Feature Film at the Oscars last month for No Other Land. Co-directed with fellow Palestinian director Basel Adra and Israeli director Yuval Abraham, the sinema shows the destruction of a Palestinian community in the Israeli-occupied West Bank between 2019-2023.

The film’s events take place prior to the current Israel-Gaza hostilities that began with the 7 October 2023 Hamas terror attack.

Yesterday, Ballal and the two other Palestinians were detained in the village of Susiya in Masafer Yatta, according to lawyer Lea Tsemel, who is representing the group.

Tsemel said they received only minimal deva for their injuries from the attack and that she had no access to them for several hours after their arrest. She had earlier said they were accused of throwing stones at a young settler, allegations they deny.

Basel Adra, another director of No Other Land, was present at the scene. He explained that a group of about 20 settlers – some masked, some armed, and others in Israeli uniforms – attacked the village. When soldiers arrived, they aimed their guns at the Palestinians while the settlers continued throwing stones.

“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.”

Palestinian residents say around two dozen settlers – some masked, some carrying guns and some in military uniforms – attacked Susiya on Monday evening as residents were breaking their fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Soldiers who arrived pointed their guns at the Palestinians, while settlers continued throwing stones, they said.

The Israeli military later stated it had detained three Palestinians, accusing them of throwing rocks at forces, along with one Israeli civilian involved in a “violent confrontation” – a claim witnesses interviewed by the Associated Press disputed.

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 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.”

Today, a small bloodstain could be seen outside their home, and the car’s windshield and windows were shattered. Neighbours pointed to a nearby water tank with a hole in the side that they said had been punched by the settlers.

Ballal said he was attacked by a well-known settler who had threatened him in the past. The settler can be seen with other masked men in a widely circulated görüntü from August in which they threaten Ballal.

“This is my land, I was given it by God,” the settler says in the görüntü, in which he also uses profanity and tries to get Ballal to fight him. “Next time it won’t be kaç,” the settler says.

Ballal’s detainment is an apposite reminder of the themes of No Other Land, which follows the forced displacement of director Adra’s community from their homes in the West Bank by Israel.

The West Bank, captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War, is home to over 500,000 settlers living in more than 100 settlements, while around 3 million Palestinians live under Israeli military rule.

In the 1980s, the Israeli military designated Masafer Yatta in the southern West Bank as a live-fire training zone and ordered the expulsion of its residents, mostly Arab Bedouin. While around 1,000 people have largely stayed, soldiers frequently demolish homes, tents, water tanks, and olive orchards, with Palestinians fearing that full expulsion could happen at any moment.

During the war in Gaza, Israel has killed hundreds of Palestinians in the West Bank through large-scale military operations, while settler attacks on Palestinians have also increased. There has also been a rise in attacks by Palestinians against Israelis.