Oscar-winning Palestinian director ‘attacked by Israeli settlers and detained’

Dozens of settlers attacked the Palestinian village of Susiya in the Masafer Yatta area, destroying property, said an activist group.

Israeli settlers beat up one of the Palestinian co-directors of the Oscar-winning documentary film No Other Land on Monday in the occupied West Bank before he was detained by the Israeli military, according to two of his fellow directors and other witnesses.

The Israeli military said it was looking into the episode but did not have any immediate comment.

The filmmaker Hamdan Ballal was one of three Palestinians detained in the village of Susiya, according to lawyer Leah Tsemmel.

Basel Adra, from left, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal, and Yuval Abraham, winners of the award for best documentary feature film for No Other Land, pose in the press room at the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles — From left, Basel Adra, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal and Yuval Abraham, winners of the award for best documentary feature film for No Other Land, at the Oscars in Los Angeles (Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Basel Adra, another co-director, witnessed the detention and said around two dozen settlers – some masked, some carrying guns, some in Israeli uniform – attacked the village.

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

“We came back from the Oscars and every day since there is an attack on us,” Adra told The Associated Press (AP).

“This might be their revenge on us for making the movie. It feels like a punishment.”

The Israeli military said it detained three Palestinians suspected of throwing rocks at forces and one Israeli civilian involved in a “violent confrontation” between Israelis and Palestinians – a claim witnesses interviewed by the AP disputed.

The military said it had transferred them to Israeli police for questioning and had evacuated an Israeli citizen from the area to receive medical treatment.

No Other Land, which won the Oscar this year for best documentary, chronicles the struggle by residents of the Masafer Yatta area to stop the Israeli military from demolishing their villages.

Ballal and Adra, both from Masafer Yatta, made the joint Palestinian-Israeli production with Israeli directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor.

The film has won a string of international awards, starting at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2024.

Salem Adra, left, brother of Palestinian activist Basel Adra, who won best documentary feature at the Oscars for No Other Land talks with a local Palestinian shepherd as they stand near an Israeli settlers’ outpost at the West Bank village of Tuwani — Salem Adra, left, brother of Palestinian activist Basel Adra, who won best documentary feature at the Oscars for No Other Land, talks with a local Palestinian shepherd as they stand near an Israeli settlers’ outpost at the West Bank village of Tuwani (Leo Correa/AP)

Adra said that settlers entered the village on Monday evening shortly after residents broke the daily fast for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

A settler – who according to Adra frequently attacks the village – walked over to Ballal’s home with the military, and soldiers shot in the air.

Ballal’s wife heard her husband being beaten outside and scream “I’m dying”, according to Adra.

Adra then saw the soldiers lead Ballal, handcuffed and blindfolded, from his home into a military vehicle.

Speaking to the AP by phone, he said Ballal’s blood was still splattered on the ground outside his own front door.

Some of the details of Adra’s account were backed up by another witness.

A group of 10-20 masked settlers with stones and sticks also assaulted activists with the Centre for Jewish Nonviolence, smashing their car windows and slashing tyres to make them flee the area, one of the activists at the scene, Josh Kimelman, told the AP.

Video provided by the Centre for Jewish Nonviolence showed a masked settler shoving and swinging his fists at two activists in a dusty field at night.

The activists rush back to their car as rocks can be heard thudding against the vehicle.

From left, Basel Adra, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal and Yuval Abraham accept the award for best documentary feature film for No Other Land during the Oscars in March at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles (Chris Pizzello/AP)

The Palestinians want all three for their future state and view settlement growth as a major obstacle to a two-state solution.

Israel has built well over 100 settlements, home to more than 500,000 settlers who have Israeli citizenship.

The three million Palestinians in the West Bank live under seemingly open-ended Israeli military rule, with the Western-backed Palestinian Authority administering population centres.

The Israeli military designated Masafer Yatta in the southern West Bank as a live-fire training zone in the 1980s and ordered residents, mostly Arab Bedouin, to be expelled.

Around 1,000 residents have largely remained in place, but soldiers regularly move in to demolish homes, tents, water tanks and olive orchards – and Palestinians fear outright expulsion could come at any time.

During the war in Gaza, Israel has killed hundreds of Palestinians in the West Bank during wide-scale military operations, and there has also been a rise in settler attacks on Palestinians.

There has been a surge in Palestinian attacks on Israelis.