Recommendations of the Editorial team
After the attack Israeli settler and his subsequent arrest by Israeli authorities became the Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal-co-director of the Oscar-winning documentary No other country – now released.
“After holding and beating all night on a military base, Hamdan Ballal is now free. And on his way home to his family,” wrote Ballal’s co-director Yuval Abraham on X. It was Abraham’s contributions to spread the news of Ballal’s attack. The attack occurred near his village house in West Bank.
Abraham reported first On Monday, March 24, that Ballal was “lovely”. But then published a correction: “Note: Hamdan was attacked and put together, not murdered”, he said. “My use of ‘Gelsyncht’ was a misjudgment from Hebrew (English is not my mother tongue). He is injured and is held in a settlement at a police station. His lawyer was not yet allowed to speak to him. So we no longer know.
Knife, bats and at least one assault rifle
The Center for Jewish Nonviolence (CJNV), an activist group with members who were on site Rolling Stone In a statement that “dozens of settlers” had attacked the Palestinian village of Susiya in the Masafer Yatta area in southern West Bank. What happened on Monday around 6 p.m. local time. According to reports, the masked attackers had weapons such as knives, bats and at least one assault rifle with them. They are said to have “attacked two houses, destroyed water tanks and stolen security cameras”.
Ballal’s attack and arrest made headlines internationally. And led to several filmmakers a petition signed in which his release was requested. At the time of the creation of this article, the petition had almost 7,000 signatures.
“Reports that Mr. Ballal, after a brutal attack by settlers from the Israeli army, was violently removed from an ambulance and then imprisoned without clear information about his whereabouts,” deeply worried us, “says the petition. This was signed by Alex Gibney, Liz Garbus and Roger Ross Williams, among others. “Such treatment of an internationally recognized filmmaker undermines artistic freedom, human rights and freedom of speech. Basic values that are of crucial importance for democratic societies.”
“Attack on our beloved art form of filmmaking”
The actor Mark Ruffalo commented on the Instagram post by indiewire as follows: “Every filmmaker and every member of the academy should protest together. No matter where you are in this question. This is an attack on our loved one of our beloved art form of filmmaking. Hamden Ballal is a political prisoner. This is an international incident and a violation of human rights. Many of us are not surprised by this behavior of the lawless settlers and the IDF at this point. Filmmakers are not a coincidence.
The film “No other Land” was shot by Palestinian and Israeli activists. And staged by Ballal, Abraham, Basel Adra and Rachel Szor. Before the Winning the Oscars For the best documentary, Adra and Abraham spoke with Rolling Stone About the situation in the West Bank. Also about whether the nomination helped or not. “So far she has not helped,” said Adra. “This is the sad part. The film runs very well outside, at festivals, the audience and with a focus of the media. But the situation on site is very bad.”
Abraham added: “We will continue to document. Because that’s what we do. I don’t know how effective it is. I can still hope that it will have an effect at some point. But at the moment, as Basel said, it is very difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel.”