The filmmaker Hamdan Ballal, one of the two Palestinian co -directors behind the Oscar -winning documentary “No Other Land”, was arrested Monday in the West Bank occupied by the Israeli army after being allegedly attacked by settlers.
Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham, who co-directed “no other field”, wrote on X Monday This “group of settlers has just lynch” his collaborator. “They beat him and he has injuries in the head and stomach, bleeding.”
“The soldiers invaded the ambulance he called and took it,” added Abraham in his post, shared in English and Hebrew. “No sign of him since.”
Anna Lippman, delegate for the center of groups of activists for Jewish non-violence that recorded and shared the video of the attack on Monday, Times via social media told that more than a dozen settlers had attacked the Palestinian village Susiya in the region of Masafer Yatta, destroying goods. During the attack on Monday evening, Ballal was “injured by the settlers”. He received treatment in an ambulance for head injuries, which included swelling and bleeding, when “the soldiers came and took him, as well as two other Palestinian men from Susiya,” said Lippman.
“We do not know where it is or its condition,” she added on Monday.
The Jewish non-violence center shared Dash camera images Bluesky someone who pushes three people and striking a member of the group. The video later shows a person – whose face is covered by a mask – joined by several others, choosing an object on the floor and throwing it on the vehicle, destroying the windshield. Video Recorded and shared by Lippman shows an alternative angle of the confrontation.
Activist Josh Kimelman, who was present during the confrontation, told the Associated Press Monday, “we don't know where Hamdan is because he was taken to a headband.”
Abraham did not immediately respond to the request for additional Times.
In a shared statement to the Times, a spokesperson for Israeli defense forces said that a “violent confrontation” had broken out in Susiya after several people whom she described as “terrorists” 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 she described as “terrorists” would have started to swing.
FDI and Israel police arrested three Palestinians and an Israeli person would have been involved in the confrontation. According to the press release, the four detainees were questioned by Israeli police and an Israeli person was evacuated to receive medical treatment, the statement said. Tsahal also denied allegations according to which a Palestinian was detained from the interior of an ambulance.
The Times confirmed that Ballal was indeed one of the three people detained on Monday evening. He was detained for suspicion of launching rocks in the FDI and the police.
Support for Ballal flocked on Monday afternoon while the news of her detention has spread. Palestinian activist Basel Adra, who also co-directed and appears in “no other field”, tweeted About the apprehension of Ballal and shared a photo of a person with both hands behind his back escorted in a vehicle decorated with an Israeli flag. He said that his collaborator “was still missing after the soldiers removed him, injured and bleeding.”
He added: “This is how they erase Masafer Yatta.”
The International Documentary Assn. released one statement In support of Ballal, who, according to them, was “violently attacked and kidnapped in the West Bank” and urged his release. The missive also demanded that the filmmaker's family and community “be informed of its state, its location and the justification of its detention”.
“No other land”, directed by Abraham, Ballal, Adra and Israeli filmmaker Rachel Szor, is a heartbreaking documentary that tells of the Israeli demolition of Palestinian villages in Masafer Yatta to make way for Israeli military training field, declaring families and communities. The film won the Documentary Award at the 2025 Academy Awards.
Recently, “No Other Land” found itself in the center of tension in Miami Beach movie scene. Earlier this month, the mayor of Miami Beach, Steven Meiner, threatened to withdraw funding from cinema subsidies O and put an end to his lease on a property belonging to the city if she projected the documentary. In a letter sent to the cinema, Meiner described the film “a unilateral propaganda attack against the Jewish people who are not in accordance with the values of our city and our residents”.
Meiner withdrew his threats last week.
In a press release, Abraham retaliated to the previous criticism of Meiner that “no other land” was “deliciously anti -Semitic”.
“When the mayor uses the word” anti -Semitism “to silence the Palestinians and the Israelis who proudly oppose occupation and apartheid, fighting for justice and equality, he empties the meaning. I find it very dangerous.
“Censorship is still wrong,” added Abraham. “We made this film to reach the public of a wide variety of political opinions. I believe that once you see the harsh reality of the occupation in Masafer Yatta in the West Bank, it becomes impossible to justify it, and that is why the mayor is not so afraid of “no other land”. It will not work.
The staff writer, Mark Olsen, contributed to this report.
