CNN
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The Palestinian co-director of Oscar-winning film “No Other Land” Hamdan Ballal was beaten up by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank and taken away by Israeli soldiers, his colleagues and eyewitnesses said.
Ballal’s co-director Basel Adra told CNN that he had gone to Ballal’s home in the West Bank village of Susya on Monday after Ballal called him in distress. He arrived to see Ballal and at least one other person being taken away.
Outside Ballal’s home was a group of Israeli settlers, some of whom were throwing stones, Adra said. Israeli police and military were also outside the home and Israeli soldiers were firing at anyone who tried to get close, he added.
The Israeli military said it had arrived at the scene of a “violent confrontation” between Palestinians and Israelis who were throwing rocks at each other. It said the fight had broken out after several “terrorists hurled rocks at Israeli citizens, damaging their vehicles.”
Three Palestinians and an Israeli were then taken in for questioning after “several terrorists” threw rocks at the security forces, it said.
Yuval Abraham, another co-director of the film, who is Israeli, said Ballal had sustained injuries to his head and abdomen and had not been heard from since. Abraham did not witness the incident himself.
Five American activists from the Center for Jewish Nonviolence (CJNV) who were also at the scene said they too had been assaulted by Israeli settlers. They said more than a dozen settlers had attacked the village, wielding batons, knives and at least one assault rifle, following a dispute involving an Israeli settler who was shepherding near a Palestinian home.
Jenna, an activist who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, said she and her colleagues were attacked by around 20 masked settlers when they approached Susya that night. Her group did not witness Ballal’s arrest.
“We tried to retreat to the car, and they hit me with sticks,” she told CNN, adding that the settlers smashed several of the car’s windows and slashed a tire. Video from the car’s dash camera shared by CJNV shows a masked individual throwing a rock directly at the windshield, and photos show broken glass littering its interior.
Josh Kimelman, who was in the same group, said Israeli soldiers witnessed the incident but did nothing to prevent it.
“We told them that they attacked us,” Kimelman told CNN. “They said everything will be fine and then stood by us and didn’t follow the settlers.”
Earlier this month, Ballal, Adra and Abraham had all stood alongside each other to accept the Oscar for best documentary. The joint Israeli-Palestinian team’s film recounts the eviction of Palestinians from their homes in the occupied West Bank.
Ballal, a Palestinian farmer, has previously been subject to intimidation and threats by Israeli settlers. He recounted to CNN last year how settlers put their livestock on his land while he was asleep. He told CNN’s Nic Robertson the settlers planned to take his land and farm and that their aggression intensified after the deadly Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023.
Ballal had documented his interactions with settlers, including threats of violence from a settler who claimed God had given him Ballal’s land.
Ballal said he called the police but to no avail.
“No Other Land” documents the continued demolition by Israeli authorities of Masafer Yatta, a collection of villages in the Hebron mountains of the West Bank where Adra lives with his family. The documentary highlights the Israeli government’s efforts to evict the villagers by force, with viewers seeing the local playground being torn down, the killing of Adra’s brother by Israeli soldiers, and other attacks by Jewish settlers while the community tries to survive.
The film also explores the human connection between Adra and Abraham.
Israel settler violence has continued to ravage Palestinian villages in the West Bank. The number of herding outposts – established by Israeli settlers to mark their claim – has expanded by nearly 50% since the war broke out, according to a joint report shared with CNN by Peace Now and Kerem Navot, two Israeli advocacy groups that oppose settlements and track their development, covering data up to the end of December 2024.
Lauren Izso contributed to this report.
