Israel Frees Oscar-Winning Director Attacked by Settlers

UPDATE Mar 25, 2025 10:50 AM CDT

The Palestinian director who earlier this month took home an Oscar has been released by Israel after being beaten by Israeli settlers and detained by the military. Hamdan Ballal and two other Palestinians were set free on Tuesday, report the AP and New York Times, with the No Other Land director visibly bloodied and bruised. The three, who said they spent the night on the floor of a military base with limited medical care for their injuries, were taken to a local hospital. Israel accused the trio of hurling stones at soldiers and one settler, charges they deny. "Of course, after the Oscar, they have come to attack us more," said Ballal's wife, Lamia Ballal, who said she watched as someone filmed her husband's assault on Monday.

Mar 24, 2025 7:10 PM CDT

Weeks after he accepted the Oscar for best documentary feature film with the other co-directors of No Other Land, Hamdan Ballal was attacked by Israeli settlers and detained by the Israeli military. American activists from the Center for Jewish Nonviolence say Ballal was surrounded and beaten at his home in a West Bank village by a group of around 15 armed settlers, the Guardian reports. The witnesses say the injured Ballal and another man were arrested by soldiers who arrived at the scene. Attorney Lea Tsemel says police told her that Ballal and other Palestinians arrested in the village are being held at a military base for medical treatment.

Josh Kimelman, one of the Jewish American activists at the scene, tells the AP that the settlers also attacked activists and their vehicles, smashing windows and slashing tires. Basel Adra, another co-director, says settlers attacked the village Monday evening, soon after residents broke their daily fast for Ramadan. "We came back from the Oscars and every day since there is an attack on us," Adra tells the AP. "This might be their revenge on us for making the movie. It feels like a punishment."

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No Other Land, directed by two Israelis and two Palestinians, chronicles the Israeli military's destruction of a Palestinian village in the West Bank and the friendship between Adra and co-director Yuval Abraham. In a post on X Monday, Abraham said settlers had "lynched" Ballal. "They beat him and he has injuries in his head and stomach, bleeding," Abraham said. Soldiers invaded the ambulance he called, and took him. No sign of him since." (The mayor of Miami Beach has dropped his proposal to evict a cinema for showing No Other Land.)