The Palestinian co-director of Oscar-winning film No Other Land Hamdan Ballal was beaten up by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, taken away by Israeli soldiers and detained overnight, according to his family, friends, colleagues, eyewitnesses and lawyer.
On Tuesday afternoon, following his release from detention, Ballal’s lawyer Leah Tzemel said that he had been “arbitrarily” held in police detention in Kiryat Arba’a, an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank, and that he had been beaten in custody by Israeli soldiers.
Following his release, he was moved to a hospital in Hebron, where he was treated for his injuries, according to his brother, Nimer.
Despite suffering from dehydration and bruising, Ballal left the hospital and insisted on going home, his co-director Basel Adra said.
CNN has reached out to Israeli authorities for comment on the allegations.
Speaking through tears from inside her home in the village of Susya on Tuesday afternoon, Ballal’s wife Lamya said that her husband was attacked in front of their house by three settlers shortly after Iftar, the sundown breaking of the fast during Ramadan.
Ballal had seen a group of settlers who were attacking the village, she said, but when he tried to document them, they came after him.
The men beat Ballal with brass knuckles and with the butt of a rifle to his head, she said, while a mob of other settlers threw stones at the door and “tried to penetrate into the house from the windows,” where she and her terrified three children were sheltering.
Adra said that he had gone to Ballal’s home on Monday evening after Ballal called him in distress. He arrived to see Ballal and at least one other person being taken away.
Adra added that a group of masked Israeli settlers, Israeli police and the military were also outside the home, with Israeli soldiers firing at anyone who tried to get close. CNN saw a bullet casing on the ground on Tuesday, just steps from Ballal’s front door.
The Israeli military said it had arrived at the scene of a “violent confrontation” between Palestinians and Israelis who were throwing rocks at each other. It said the fight had broken out after several “terrorists hurled rocks at Israeli citizens, damaging their vehicles.”
Three Palestinians and an Israeli were then taken in for questioning after “several terrorists” threw rocks at the security forces, it said.
Yuval Abraham, another co-director of the film, who is Israeli and was not at the scene at the time of the incident, said Ballal had sustained injuries to his head and abdomen.
Najah Mughanam, Ballal’s neighbour, said that she and her husband, both sheep farmers aged in their sixties, were also attacked by the settlers.
“They beat up my husband with a shovel,” she said, adding that it was the second time in a week that the settlers had come to attack them on their land. On Monday, in addition to trying to steal their sheep, their water tank was also slashed with a knife.
Mughanam said that since the war began, settler violence in her village had increased.
“Since October 7, there have been more than 45 attacks on us, here in Susya,” she said.
‘There’s no accountability’
Five American activists from the Centre for Jewish Nonviolence (CJNV) who were also at the scene on Monday said they too had been assaulted by Israeli settlers. They said more than a dozen settlers had attacked the village, wielding batons, knives and at least one assault rifle, following a dispute involving an Israeli settler who was shepherding near a Palestinian home.
Jenna, an activist who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, said she and her colleagues were attacked by around 20 masked settlers when they approached Susya that night. Her group did not witness Ballal’s arrest.
“We tried to retreat to the car, and they hit me with sticks,” she said, adding that the settlers smashed several of the car’s windows and slashed a tyre. Video from the car’s dash camera shared by CJNV shows a masked individual throwing a rock directly at the windshield, and photos show broken glass littering its interior.
Josh Kimelman, a Jewish American whose father is Israeli, was in the same group. He said that Israeli soldiers witnessed the incident but did nothing to prevent it.
“We told them that they attacked us,” Kimelman said. “They said everything will be fine and then stood by us and didn’t follow the settlers.”
Kimelman said that similar attacks happen frequently, but they don’t always get as much attention as they should.
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“They don’t always involve an Oscar-winning filmmaker,” he said.
“There’s no accountability for settlers who commit violence,” he added.
Earlier this month, Ballal, Adra and Abraham had all stood alongside each other to accept the Oscar for best documentary. The joint Israeli-Palestinian team’s film recounts the eviction of Palestinians from their homes in the occupied West Bank.
No Other Land documents the continued demolition by Israeli authorities of Masafer Yatta, a collection of villages in the Hebron mountains of the West Bank where Adra lives with his family.
The documentary highlights the Israeli government’s efforts to evict the villagers by force, with viewers seeing the local playground being torn down, the killing of Adra’s brother by Israeli soldiers, and other attacks by Jewish settlers while the community tries to survive.
