Hamdan Ballal, the Palestinian co-director of the Oscar-winning documentary “No Other Land”, says his family has been attacked again in the occupied West Bank, leaving his brother hospitalised and four relatives detained.
In a statement shared online by fellow directors Yuval Abraham and Basel Adra, Ballal alleged that the assault was carried out by “the settler who attacked me in my home shortly after I won the Oscar last year.” He said his brother phoned the police, but soldiers arrived first and “immediately raided our house, attacking everyone inside.” According to Ballal, two brothers, a nephew, and a cousin were arrested. Another brother “was badly injured and is now in the hospital.”
Ballal wrote that violence around his home in Susiya has intensified over the past year, adding that “the situation has gotten worse … as it has across the West Bank.” Two weeks ago, he said, an Israeli court ordered the area closed to non-residents. Yet, he claimed, settlers continue to enter with livestock. “We call the police, and they do nothing. The army comes, they do nothing.”
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He further alleged, “The Israeli court decision was supposed to make things a bit quieter for us. But the opposite has been true. The settlers have ramped up their harassment, and the Israeli authorities have done nothing to enforce the decision, and today they joined the settlers in the attack.”
Ballal was assaulted in March last year, days after “No Other Land” won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. He later said he suffered injuries to his head and stomach and was zip-tied and blindfolded before being released. In a New York Times opinion essay weeks later, he wrote, “Our movie won an Oscar, but our lives are no better than before.”
The documentary chronicles the demolition of Palestinian homes in Masafer Yatta and the unlikely partnership between activist Basel Adra and Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham between 2019 and 2023. The film initially lacked a US distributor and was eventually self-released.
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Violence in the region has drawn scrutiny from rights groups and activists. Raviv Rose, a Jewish American working with the Center for Jewish Nonviolence, said after last year’s assault that “in Masafer Yatta, there have been four attacks on a similar scale since the Oscars alone [just weeks earlier]. Every time we document, we try to get the word out and file our police complaints, but we understand that nothing comes of this.”
The film’s website underscores the continuing unrest, stating, “Masafer Yatta is still being erased, and the daily violence continues.” It also notes the July 28 killing of Palestinian activist Awdah Hathaleen, allegedly shot by an Israeli settler. Hathaleen appears in the documentary.
Israeli authorities have not publicly responded to Ballal’s latest claims. The allegations come amid sustained tensions across the West Bank, where clashes between settlers, Palestinian,s and security forces have intensified since the Gaza war began in October 2023.
Ballal ended his appeal with a plea, “Don’t turn away now.”
