Israel releases Oscar-winning Palestinian director after he was attacked by West Bank settlers

Following an assault by Israeli settlers and his subsequent detention by Israeli authorities, Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal — co-director of the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land — has been released, as per certain international media reports.

“After being handcuffed all night and beaten in a military base, Hamdan Ballal is now free and is about to go home to his family,” wrote Ballal’s co-director, Yuval Abraham, on X. Abraham’s posts were instrumental in spreading the news of Ballal’s attack, which took place just outside his home in a West Bank village.

Initially, on Monday, 24 March, Abraham reported that Ballal had been “lynched”. However, he later issued a correction: “Note: Hamdan was assaulted and beaten up, not murdered,” he clarified. “My use of ‘lynched’ was a mistranslation from Hebrew (English isn’t my first language). He’s injured and being held at a police station in a settlement. They did not let his lawyer speak to him yet so we don’t know more.”

Ballal and two other Palestinians detained with him were released on Tuesday afternoon (local time) from a police station in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba. Ballal had bruises on his face and blood on his clothes, and the three were driven to a hospital in the neighbouring Palestinian city of Hebron, according to Associated Press journalists at the scene.

Their attorney, Lea Tsemel, said they spent the night on the floor of a military base while receiving only minimal care for their injuries from the attack. She had earlier said they were accused of throwing stones at a young settler, allegations they deny.

Palestinian residents say around two dozen settlers — some masked, some carrying guns and some in military uniforms — attacked the West Bank village of Susiya on Monday evening as residents were breaking their fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Soldiers who arrived pointed their guns at the Palestinians, while settlers continued throwing stones, they said.

The Israeli military said on Monday it had detained three Palestinians suspected of hurling rocks at forces and one Israeli civilian involved in a what it described as a violent confrontation. On Tuesday, it referred further queries to police, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Lamia Ballal, the director's wife, said she heard her husband being beaten outside their home as she huddled inside with their three children. She heard him screaming, “I'm dying!" and calling for an ambulance. When she looked out the window, she saw three men in uniform beating Ballal with the butts of their rifles and another person in civilian clothes who appeared to be filming the violence. “Of course, after the Oscar, they have come to attack us more,” Lamia said. “I felt afraid.”

The Center for Jewish Nonviolence (CJNV), an activist organisation with members present at the scene, provided a statement to Rolling Stone regarding the incident. According to CJNV, “dozens of settlers” launched an attack on the Palestinian village of Susiya in the Masafer Yatta region of the southern West Bank on Monday at around 6.00 pm local time. The masked assailants, reportedly armed with knives, batons, and at least one assault rifle, allegedly targeted “two homes, destroyed water tanks, and stole security cameras”.

West Bank settlers are often armed and sometimes wear military-style clothing that makes it difficult to distinguish them from soldiers. On Tuesday, a small bloodstain could be seen outside the Ballals' home, and the car's windshield and windows were shattered. Neighbours pointed to a nearby water tank with a hole in the side that they said had been punched by the settlers.

No Other Land, which won the Oscar this year for best documentary, chronicles the struggle by residents of the Masafer Yatta area to stop the Israeli military from demolishing their villages.

The joint Israeli-Palestinian production has won a string of international awards, starting at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2024. It has also drawn ire in Israel and abroad, as when Miami Beach proposed ending the lease of a movie theater that screened it.

Basel Adra, another of the film's co-directors who is a prominent Palestinian activist in the area, said there's been a massive upswing in attacks by settlers and Israeli forces since the Oscar win. “Nobody can do anything to stop the pogroms, and soldiers are only there to facilitate and help the attacks,” he said. "We're living in dark days here, in Gaza, and all of the West Bank ... Nobody's stopping this.”

Masked settlers with sticks also attacked Jewish activists in the area on Monday, smashing their car windows and slashing tires, according to Josh Kimelman, an activist with the Center for Jewish Nonviolence. Video provided by the group showed a masked settler shoving and swinging his fists at two activists in a dusty field at night.

Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. The Palestinians want all three for their future state and view settlement growth as a major obstacle to a two-state solution. Most of the international community considers the settlements illegal.

Israel has built well over 100 settlements, home to over 500,000 settlers who have Israeli citizenship. The 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank live under seemingly open-ended Israeli military rule, with the Western-backed Palestinian Authority administering population centres.

The Israeli military designated Masafer Yatta in the southern West Bank as a live-fire training zone in the 1980s and ordered residents, mostly Arab Bedouin, to be expelled. Around 1,000 residents have largely remained in place, but soldiers regularly move in to demolish homes, tents, water tanks and olive orchards — and Palestinians fear outright expulsion could come at any time.

The Palestinians also face threats from settlers at nearby outposts. Palestinians and rights groups say Israeli forces usually turn a blind eye to settler attacks or intervene on behalf of the settlers.

The war in Gaza has sparked a surge of violence in the West Bank, with the Israeli military carrying out widescale military operations that have killed hundreds of Palestinians and displaced tens of thousands. There has been a rise in settler violence as well as Palestinian attacks on Israelis.

Ballal’s attack and detention gained international attention, prompting numerous filmmakers to sign a petition demanding his release. As of now, the petition has amassed nearly 7,000 signatures.

In response to the situation, actor Mark Ruffalo commented on IndieWire’s Instagram post, saying, “Every filmmaker and academy member should be acting together in protest. No matter where you stand on this issue, this is an attack on our beloved art form of filmmaking. Hamdan Ballal is a political prisoner, and this is an international incident and violation of human rights. Many of us are not surprised by this behavior from the lawless settlers and the IDF at this point. Killing journalists and abducting filmmakers is not an accident but a design for the eradication of a people and their culture. Free Ballal!”

With agency inputs