Hamdan Ballal. Picture: Monika Skolimowska/image alliance by means of Getty Photographs
Not up to a month after No Different Land received the Oscar for Very best Documentary Function, Palestinian Hamdan Ballal — some of the movie’s 4 administrators — was once injured in an assault by way of about 15 Israeli settlers at the village of Susiya in Masafer Yatta, the territory the place the documentary was once filmed, in step with The Mum or dad. One in all Ballal’s co-directors, Yuval Abraham, reported that Ballal was once crushed and sustained accidents to his head and abdomen. Right through his shipping by way of ambulance, Ballal and any other guy had been arrested by way of the Israeli military, and their whereabouts are unknown. Basel Adra, any other considered one of No Different Land’s administrators, tweeted that he’s with Ballal’s younger son within the aftermath of the violence.
“There have been dozens of settlers in conjunction with the Israeli squaddies they usually had been threatening us with guns. The police had been there from the start and didn’t interfere. Whilst the warriors had been pointing their guns at us, the settlers began attacking the homes of the Palestinians,” Adra informed The Mum or dad. “Hamdan attempted to offer protection to his circle of relatives and the settlers attacked him. Squaddies began taking pictures within the air to forestall somebody to lend a hand Hamdan. He was once shouting for lend a hand. They let the settlers assault him after which the military kidnapped him.” In the past, Adra reported his neighbors’ space was once “stormed” on March 11, now not lengthy after the No Different Land group returned from the Academy Awards.
A gaggle of settlers simply lynched Hamdan Ballal, co director of our movie no different land. They beat him and he has accidents in his head and abdomen, bleeding. Squaddies invaded the ambulance he referred to as, and took him. No signal of him since.
— Yuval Abraham יובל אברהם (@yuval_abraham) March 24, 2025
The settler violence in Masafer Yatta started round 6 p.m., in step with a press unencumber from the Centre for Jewish Nonviolence. Anna Lippman, who works with the CFJN, was once at the scene about quarter-hour after the assaults started and filmed the violence because it spread out. She tells Vulture that Ballal was once attacked inside his house and that the police had been intent on arresting him fairly than pursuing the settlers who made the assaults or serving to the ones from the nonprofit whose vehicles had been destroyed; the reason behind Ballal’s arrest remains to be unknown. No longer in contrast to the paintings proven in No Different Land, Lippman says that the Centre is one of the global teams documenting its villages. “We’re right here to leverage our privilege as internationals to mitigate violence and displacement in opposition to Palestinians in Masafer Yatta,” she says.
On the Academy Awards on March 2, Ballal stated the movie, which captures on-the-ground photos of Israeli settler and armed forces violence in Masafer Yatta, “displays the cruel truth that we’ve got been enduring for many years and nonetheless face up to, as we name at the international to take critical movements to prevent the injustice.” Lippman echoes his sentiments. “Sharing this tale and asking our legislators to call for motion from Israel is the most important strategy to drive the state to unencumber Hamdan,” she says. “Traditionally, global drive has performed an excellent deal to lend a hand the folk of Masafer Yatta.”
“Palestinians within the village were underneath bodily assault by way of settlers virtually day by day,” Adra informed The Mum or dad. “The settlers’ violence is expanding right here. Perhaps it’s a revenge for the film and the Oscar.”
