According to the two co-directors of "No Other Land" and other witnesses, one of the Palestinian co-directors of the Oscar-winning documentary "No Other Land" was beaten by Israeli settlers and then detained by the Israeli military in the occupied West Bank.
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03-29, 2025Lawyer Lea Tsemel stated that filmmaker Hamdan Ballal was one of three Palestinians detained in the village of Susiya on Monday, local time. Police told her that they were being held at a military base for treatment, and she said she was unable to speak with them.
Another co-director, Basel Adra, witnessed the detention and said that about two dozen settlers—some masked, some carrying guns, and some in Israeli uniforms—attacked the village. The arriving soldiers pointed their guns at the Palestinians while the settlers continued to throw stones. "We have been attacked every day since we returned from the Oscars," Adra told The Associated Press. "This could be their revenge for us making this film. It feels like a punishment."
The Israeli military said they detained three Palestinians suspected of throwing stones at troops, as well as an Israeli civilian involved in a "violent confrontation" between Israelis and Palestinians—a claim disputed by witnesses interviewed by The Associated Press. The military said they had transferred the individuals to Israeli police for questioning and had evacuated an Israeli citizen from the area for treatment.
"No Other Land" won the Oscar for Best Documentary this year, chronicling the struggle of residents in the Masafer Yatta area to prevent the Israeli military from demolishing their villages. Ballal and Adra are both from Masafer Yatta, and they co-produced the Palestinian-Israeli film with Israeli directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor. The film has won a series of international awards, including at the 2024 Berlin International Film Festival, but has also drawn anger in Israel and abroad, such as in Miami Beach, where a proposal was made to terminate the lease of a cinema that screened the documentary.
Adra said that settlers entered the village shortly after residents ended their daily fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan on Monday evening. According to Adra, a settler who frequently attacks the village walked to Ballal's house with the military, and soldiers fired shots into the air. According to Adra, Ballal's wife heard her husband being beaten outside and screamed, "I'm going to die." Adra then saw soldiers take Ballal, handcuffed and blindfolded, from his home to a military vehicle. He told The Associated Press by phone that Ballal's blood was still splattered on the ground outside his own home. Some details of Adra's account were supported by another witness who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation.
An activist on the scene, Josh Kimelman, told The Associated Press that a group of 10-20 masked settlers attacked activists from the Center for Jewish Nonviolence with stones and sticks, smashing their car windows and slashing their tires, forcing them to flee the area. Video provided by the Center for Jewish Nonviolence shows a masked settler shoving and punching two activists in a dusty field at night. The activists rushed back to their car as the sound of stones hitting the vehicle could be heard.
The West Bank has been a flashpoint of tension between Israelis and Palestinians since the 1967 war. The Israeli military designated Masafer Yatta, a southern area of the West Bank, as a live-fire training zone in the 1980s and ordered the residents, who are mainly Arab Bedouins, to be evicted. About 1,000 residents have largely remained in place, but soldiers frequently enter to demolish homes, tents, water tanks, and olive groves—Palestinians fear a complete expulsion could come at any time. During the Gaza war, Israeli military operations in the West Bank have killed hundreds of Palestinians, and settler attacks against Palestinians have also increased. At the same time, Palestinian attacks against Israelis have also risen sharply.
