The filmmakers behind “no other land” say that the Academy of Arts and Cinema Sciences failed this week to intervene publicly and support the co-director Hamdan Ballal when he “needed it”.
Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham and the Palestinian activist Basel Adra, who both co-produced and appeared in the documentary, criticized the Cinema Academy on Wednesday for his silence on the recent attack on Ballal and his detainee by the Israeli army and the police in the occupied West Bank. Israeli forces arrested the ballal Monday After being attacked by settlers. He was released Tuesday. Barely a few weeks ago, Abraham, Adra and Israeli filmmaker Rachel Szor accepted the documentary prize for “No other land” At 97th Academy Awards.
Abraham tweeted A missive Houleuse early Wednesday morning, writing that the Academy “refused to publicly support Hamdan Ballal when he was beaten and tortured by Israeli soldiers and settlers”. He said that several members of the Academy, who supervise the Oscars, pushed a declaration in support of Ballal, “but he was finally refused.” Earlier this week, the European Cinema Academy and the Assn International Documentary. were among the groups of films sensitizing the detention of Ballal and calling for his release.
“We were told that because other Palestinians were beaten in the settlers' attack, it could be considered unrelated to the film, so they did not feel the need to respond,” said Abraham.
Abraham wrote that his co-director had heard Israeli soldiers “joking about the Oscar as they tortured him” and that the ballal “was also targeted to be Palestinian”. Adra, retweeting the post of Abraham, doubled the claim of his employee on Wednesday. He tweeted: “They refused to support Hamdan simply because he is Palestinian. Another sign that our lives do not matter.”
“That, it seems, gave the academy an excuse to keep silent when a filmmaker whom they honored, living under the Israeli occupation, needed it most,” said Abraham, before adding “it is not too late to change this position.”
He ended his tweet: “Even now, publishing a statement condemning the attack on Hamdan and the community of Masafer Yatta would send a significant message and would have dissuasive for the future.”
A representative of the Academy did not immediately respond to the request for comments from the Times.
The Israeli army and police arrested the Ballal on Monday evening after a group of settlers went down to the Palestinian village of Susiya in the region of Masafer Yatta while its residents broke along the day for Ramadan, according to the Associated Press. Ballal's wife Lamia Ballal told AP that she had heard her husband beat in front of their house and heard her scream: “I die while dying.” She said that she had seen three men in uniform using the butts of their rifles and that the attention surrounding the victory of the Oscars “no other terrain” led the colonists to “attack us more”.
Abraham and the center of the activist group for Jewish non-violence announced the detention of Ballal on Monday. Abraham tweeted On Monday that “the soldiers invaded the ambulance (Ballal) called and took it”. Adra too 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 at the time.
On Monday, the Center for Jewish Nonviolence posted camera sequences to take time on time Bluesky confrontation. The video showed that someone was pushing three people and struck a member of the group, and another person – whose face is covered by a mask – joined by several others, picking up an object in the ground and launching it on the vehicle, destroying the windshield. Anna Lippman, delegate for the activist group, shared video showing an alternative angle of confrontation and tweeted photos of a vehicle With shards of glass in the passenger seats. She told Times on Monday that Israeli soldiers had taken the ambulance ballal where he received care and also owned two other Palestinian men.
A few hours after the news of Ballal's detention spread on Monday, a spokesperson for the Israeli defense forces said in a statement that the “violent confrontation” had broken out after several people, they described as “terrorists” have launched rocks against Israeli citizens and damaged their vehicles. The incident involved “mutual rock between the Palestinians and the Israelis on the scene,” the statement said. According to the press release, the FDI and the Israeli police responded to “disperse the confrontation” and the people she described as “terrorists” began to rock. The Israeli forces arrested four people, including an Israeli person who would have been involved in the incident, and placed them in police custody for another interrogation.
The FDI spokesman denied the allegations on Monday that she had held someone inside an ambulance. Israeli forces arrested Ballal suspected of launching rocks at FDI and police.
Ballal was released on Tuesday from an Israeli police station with bruises on his face and blood on his clothes. He told AP that he had bandaged eyes, forced to sleep under an “icy” air conditioner and he “heard the voices of soldiers laughing at me”.
In a statement to Times on Wednesday morning, the FDI spokesman denied “baseless” allegations that the prisoners were beaten in a military detention center and said 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 allegations of Ballal concerning detention. 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.
After leaving Ballal, Abraham tweeted Tuesday, that his co -director “is now free and about to go home to his family”. Adra also shared photos of his co -director receiving medical care. The photos show a ballal 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. There are dark spots that look like blood on a sleeve and in front of its striped shirt.
Ballal, in an interview with the Tutor Published Wednesday, said: “It was a revenge for our film.”
“No other land” captures the demolition of Palestinian villages by Israel in Masafer Yatta and the displacement of its communities in favor of Israeli military training courses.
