Hamdan Ballal, the Palestinian co-director of the Oscar-winning documentary “No Other Land” has been attacked by Israeli settlers at his West Bank home and arrested by soldiers, according to social media posts by fellow director Yuval Abraham.
“A group of settlers just lynched Hamdan Ballal, co-director of our film ‘No Other Land.’ They beat him and he has injuries in his head and stomach, bleeding. Soldiers invaded the ambulance he called, and took him. No sign of him since,” Abraham posted on X. A Jewish activist who spoke to the Associated Press says that Ballal was “taken away in a blindfold” by Israeli military as he was being treated in an ambulance.
According to witnesses who spoke to Israel Hayom, a stone-throwing fight broke out between Israelis and Palestinians after an Israeli shepherd was attacked. Three Palestinians were arrested in connection to the fight, including Ballal. Israel Hayom has reached out to the IDF for comment.
“No Other Land,” is a documentary made over four years by the filmmaking team of Palestinian West Bank residents Ballal and Basel Adra alongside Israelis Abraham and Rachel Szor, all of whom attended the Oscars earlier this month and received the award for Best Documentary Feature. The film chronicles the destruction of Palestinians’ homes in the West Bank hamlet of Masafer Yattaby Israeli settlers after a 2019 Israeli court ruling upholding the area as a “military zone.”
Since the film’s premiere at last year’s Berlin Film Festival, Ballal, Abraham and Adra have continued to post photos and videos of attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank, with Ballal’s most recent post on Instagram coming six hours before Abraham’s post.
Abraham provided a more detailed account of the alleged attack against Ballal in a follow-up post written in Hebrew.
“They beat him in the head and all over his body. While wounded and bleeding, soldiers entered the ambulance he had called and arrested him. He has since disappeared and it is unclear whether he is receiving medical treatment or what is happening to him,” he wrote.
“No Other Land” has not received a distributor in the United States and has been screening in 138 theaters through an independent booker. It has continued to make headlines after Miami Beach mayor Steven Meiner threatened to cancel the lease of the arthouse theater O Cinema for screening the film, but backed off after a public backlash.
More to come…
The post ‘No Other Land’ Co-Director Hamdan Ballal Attacked and Detained in West Bank, Yuval Abraham Says: ‘No Sign of Him Since’ appeared first on TheWrap.
