Shock as Oscar-winning director “lynched,” seized from ambulance and arrested

Hamdan Ballal, a Palestinian director of the documentary “No Other Land”, which won an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature Film at the 97th Academy Awards on March 2, has reportedly been beaten by settlers in the West Bank and then seized from an ambulance by the Israeli military.

Ballal “wounded in the head and abdomen”

Local Call, a left-wing media publication that has both Israeli and Palestinian contributors, posted the following on X on Monday:

“Oscar-winning director and journalist Hamdan Bilal was attacked by settlers in the southern Hebron Hills and wounded in the head and abdomen. While being evacuated, he was taken out of the ambulance and arrested by the army."

The incident was also reported on BlueSky by the Center for Jewish Nonviolence, an activist group, who claimed Ballal had been the target of an armed attack by settlers in Susiya, a village with a population of just over 1,600 in the West Bank.

“I’m standing near Hamdan’s blood”

Additionally, Ballal’s co-directors Basel Adra, a Palestinian, and Yuval Abraham, an Israeli, referenced the assault on social media, with the former racing to his colleague’s house after learning the news.

“I’m standing with Karam, Hamdan’s 7 year old son, near Hamdan’s blood in his house, after settlers lynched him," posted Arda on X, along with a photo from the scene. ”Hamdan, co-director of our film ‘No Other Land,’ is still missing after soldiers abducted him, injured and bleeding."

Abraham, meanwhile, gave further details of Ballal’s injuries: “A group of settlers just lynched Hamdan Ballal, co-director of our film ‘No Other Land’. They beat him and he has injuries in his head and stomach, bleeding. Soldiers invaded the ambulance he called, and took him. No sign of him since.”

What is “No Other Land” about?

“No Other Land” tells the story of Israeli demolitions in another Palestinian village in the West Bank, Masafer Yatta. The documentary has been unable to find a distributor in the United States, which Abraham believes is down to its controversial nature.

Israel’s Culture Minister Miki Zohar described the documentary as “sabotage against the State of Israel.”

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