Co-director Hamdan Ballal was beaten by a group of settlers and arrested while he was being treated in an ambulance in Masafer Yatta in the occupied West Bank, according to the production team behind No Other Land.
According to Yuval Abraham, the film’s Israeli co-director, the attackers struck Ballal, leaving him with head and abdominal injuries, and soldiers entered the ambulance to take him away. He has not been traced since.
According to the film’s producers, the events occurred around 6:00 p.m. local time when about a dozen Israeli settlers attacked the Palestinian village of Susiya in Masafer Yatta, injuring people and destroying property.
The attackers arrived with batons, knives and at least one rifle; many were masked. Five American Jewish activists came to document the assault and were violently assaulted by the settlers, who also used stones to smash their vehicle with the activists inside.
During the assault, Ballal sustained injuries described as bleeding and swelling, and while paramedics treated him, Israeli forces arrested him along with another Palestinian.
The production team says they do not know Ballal’s whereabouts or whether he is receiving medical care.
Oscar for Best Documentary
No Other Land spans five years of filming from 2019 to 2023 at the home of Palestinian journalist Basel Adra in the Masafer Yatta cluster of villages, showing the demolitions of homes, schools, wells and roads by the Israeli Army, actions that continue today.
On March 3, the film won the Oscar for Best Documentary, and since then the Palestinian-Israeli activist group Standing Together has organized screenings in Tel Aviv and other cities across the country, despite a request by the Israeli Culture Minister not to show the film.