Hamdan Ballal, one of the two Palestinian filmmakers who co-directed the Oscar-winning documentary “No Autcre la Land”, is free. He was released on Tuesday from the Israeli guard, less than a day after the Israeli army and the police owned him and three other people following a brutal attack on Monday by settled settlers.
Ballal was released from an Israeli police station in the Colony of the West Bank of Kiryat Arba. He had bruises on his face and blood on his clothes. When it was released, the filmmaker told the Associated Press that He was in detention in an army base and was forced to sleep under an air conditioner.
“I was blindfolded for 24 hours,” he told AP. “All night, I was being. It was a room, I couldn't see anything … I heard the voice of the soldiers laughing at me. ”
The ballal was Detainee on Monday Evening after a group of masked settlers went down to the Palestinian village Susiya in the region of Masafer Yatta and defeated it in its head and stomach, its Israeli co-director and journalist Yuval Abraham and its militant center for Jewish non-violence. Abraham said in a tweet shared on Monday that “soldiers invaded the ambulance (Ballal) called and took it”. Activist Basel Adra, another Palestinian co-director of “No other Lar”, also tweeted About the detention of Ballal on Monday, sharing a photo of a person with his hands behind his back escorted in a vehicle carrying the Israeli flag. “Hamdan … is still missing after the soldiers removed it, injured and bleeding,” said Adra.
The Palestinian residents said that the colonists, some wearing masks, some wearing firearms and some in military uniforms, attacked while residents broke for their fast during the Ramadan Sacred Muslim month, reported.
The wife of the filmmaker Lamia Ballal told her husband's detention and the AP attack. She said that she had heard that Ballal was beaten outside their house and heard her scream: “I'm dying.” Lamia Ballal said her husband had been beaten by three men in uniform using the butts of their rifles. She told AP the attention surrounding the victory of the Oscars “no other land” earlier this month led the colonists to “attack us more”.
The Center for Jewish Nonviolence on Monday displayed images of Dashcam on Bluesky someone who pushes three people and striking a member of the group. The video later shows another person – whose face is covered by a mask – joined by several others, picking up an object on the ground and launching it on the vehicle, destroying the windshield. Video Recorded and shared by Anna Lippman, a delegate for the activist group, shows an alternative to the angle of confrontation. Lippman also tweeted photos of a vehicle With shards of glass in the passenger seats.
Lippman told Times on Monday via messages on social networks that more than a dozen settlers had attacked Susiya and destroyed goods. She also said that Israeli soldiers had taken the ambulance ballal where he received care and had two other Palestinian men.
In a press release on Monday, a spokesperson for the Israeli defense forces shared his account of the “violent confrontation”. The spokesman said that the dispute had broken out after several people whom she described as “terrorists” would have launched rocks to Israeli citizens and damaged their vehicles. The incident involved “mutual rock between the Palestinians and the Israelis on the scene,” the statement said.
TDI said that its members and the Israel police responded “to disperse the confrontation” and that the people he described as “terrorists” began to swing. The spokesman said the Israeli soldiers and police also owned an Israeli person who was involved in the confrontation and took the four detainees for new questions. The FDI spokesperson also denied allegations that held someone inside an ambulance. Times learned on Monday afternoon that Israeli forces had held the Ballal suspected of launching rocks in the FDI and the police.
The FDI spokesperson, in a statement shared with Times on Wednesday morning, denied the “baseless” allegations that the prisoners were beaten in a military detention center and said that the forces “facilitated medical treatment” for the people he had held. The press release indicates that the detainees remained handcuffed “in accordance with the operational protocol”, but he did not respond to the assertion of Ballal according to which he was forced to sleep under an air conditioner. Israeli forces interviewed three detainees “suspected of rock delay, material damage and endangering regional security”, according to the press release. They were released from the Israeli guard “under conditions which include the prohibition to contact with other people involved in the incident and the personal deposit”.
The spokesperson added that an Israeli civilian was injured during Monday confrontation and demanded medical care. “The investigation is underway and other arrests are expected,” the statement said.
The lawyer representing Ballal and the two other detained Palestinian men did not immediately respond at the time on Wednesday.
Tuesday, Adra tweeted photos from Ballal Receiving Medical Care. He wrote that his co -director “was beaten by soldiers and settlers on his entire body”. He repeated the claims that Israeli soldiers left Ballal “blindfolded and handcuffed” during his time in detention. The photos show a ballal lying on a medical examination table with two members of the medical staff around him, a wrapping a blood pressure monitor around the director's left arm. The dark spots that look like blood dot the sleeves and the front of the striped shirt of ballal.
Barely a few weeks ago, Ballal joined his “No Other Land” co -directors Adra, Abraham and Israeli filmmaker Rachel Szor to accept the documentary prize 97th Academy Awards. The film, which has recently become the subject of controversy in Miami Beach Earlier this monthDocuments the demolition of the Palestinian villages by Israel to Masafer Yatta and the displacement of its communities in favor of Israeli military training fields.
Despite a lack of commitment from American distributors, various theaters across the country project “No Other Land”, including the locations of Laemmle Theatres Santa Monica and Glendale and the Theater of Beverly Hills. The American film and animated film festival in Palm Springs will organize a screening of the film Friday at the Palm Springs Cultural Center.
