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'No Other Land' co-director Hamdan Ballal, bloodied and bruised, released from Israeli custody
Palestinian 'No Other Land' filmmaker Hamdan Ballal is free, less than a day after Israeli military and police forces detained him following a brutal attack by settlers.
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Hamdan Ballal, one of the two Palestinian filmmakers who co-directed the Oscar-winning documentary âNo Other Land,â is free. He was released Tuesday from Israeli custody, less than a day after Israeli military and police detained him and three other people following a brutal attack Monday by settlers in the occupied West Bank.
Ballal was released from an Israeli police station in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba. He had bruises on his face and blood on his clothes. Upon his release, the filmmaker told the Associated Press that he was in custody at an army base and forced to sleep under an air conditioner.
âI was blindfolded for 24 hours,â he told AP. âAll the night, I was freezing. It was a room, I couldnât see anything ... I heard the voice of soldiers laughing about me.â
Ballal was detained Monday evening after a group of masked settlers descended on the Palestinian village Susiya in the Masafer Yatta area and beat him in his head and stomach, his Israeli co-director and journalist Yuval Abraham and activist group Center for Jewish Nonviolence alleged. Abraham said in a tweet shared Monday that âsoldiers invaded the ambulance [Ballal] called, and took him.â Activist Basel Adra, another Palestinian co-director of âNo Other Land,â also tweeted about Ballalâs detainment Monday, sharing a photo of a person with their hands behind their back being escorted into a vehicle bearing the Israeli flag. âHamdan...is still missing after soldiers abducted him, injured and bleeding,â Adra said.
Palestinian residents said the settlers, some wearing masks, some carrying guns and some in military uniforms, attacked as residents were breaking for their fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, AP reported.
The filmmakerâs wife Lamia Ballal recounted her husbandâs detainment and the attack to AP. She said she heard Ballal being beaten outside their home and heard him screaming, âIâm dying.â Lamia Ballal said her husband was beaten by three men in uniform using the butts of their rifles. She told AP the attention surrounding âNo Other Landâsâ Oscar win earlier this month led settlers to âattack us more.â
The Center for Jewish Nonviolence on Monday posted dashcam footage on Bluesky of someone shoving three people and punching one member of the group. The video later shows another person â whose face is covered by a mask â joined by several others, picking up an object from the ground and hurling it at the vehicle, destroying the windshield. Video recorded and shared by Anna Lippman, a delegate for the activist group, shows an alternate angle of the confrontation. Lippman also tweeted photos of a vehicle with shards of glass in the passenger seats.
Lippman told The Times via social media messages Monday that more than a dozen settlers attacked Susiya and destroyed property. She also said that Israeli soldiers took Ballal from the ambulance where he was receiving care, and detained two other Palestinian men.
In a Monday statement, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces shared its account of the âviolent confrontation.â The spokesperson said the dispute broke out after several people it described as âterroristsâ allegedly hurled rocks at Israeli citizens and damaged their vehicles. The incident involved âmutual rock-hurling between Palestinians and Israelis at the scene,â the statement said.
IDF said its members and Israel police responded âto disperse the confrontation,â and that the people it described as âterroristsâ started hurling rocks their way. The spokesperson said Israeli military and police forces also detained an Israeli person allegedly involved in the confrontation and took all four detainees for further questioning. The IDF spokesperson also denied allegations it detained someone from inside an ambulance. The Times learned Monday afternoon that Israeli forces had detained Ballal on suspicion of hurling rocks at IDF and police.
The IDF spokesperson did not immediately respond Tuesday to The Timesâ request for more information about Ballalâs release and the status of the three other detainees. The spokesperson also did not immediately respond to The Timesâ inquiry about Ballalâs claims about the conditions of his detainment.
The attorney representing Ballal and the two other Palestinian men who were detained did not immediately respond to The Times on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, Adra tweeted photos of Ballal receiving medical care. He wrote that his co-director âwas beaten by soldiers and settlers all over his body.â He repeated claims that Israeli soldiers left Ballal âblindfolded and handcuffedâ for the entirety of his time in custody. The photos show Ballal lying on a medical exam table with two medical personnel around him, one wrapping a blood pressure monitor around the directorâs left arm. Dark stains that look like blood dot the sleeves and the front of Ballalâs striped shirt.
Just weeks ago, Ballal joined his âNo Other Landâ co-directors Adra, Abraham and Israeli filmmaker Rachel Szor in accepting the documentary feature prize at the 97th Academy Awards. The film, which recently became the subject of controversy in Miami Beach earlier this month, documents Israelâs demolition of Palestinian villages in Masafer Yatta and displacement of its communities in favor of Israeli military training grounds.
Despite a lack of commitment from U.S. distributors, various theaters across the country are screening âNo Other Land,â including the Laemmle Theatresâ Santa Monica and Glendale locations and the Lumiere Theater in Beverly Hills. The American Documentary and Animation Film Festival in Palm Springs will host a screening of the film Friday at the Palm Springs Cultural Center.
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