Oscar-Winning Palestinian Film Director Attacked by Israeli Settlers, Detained
Wall Street Journal
By Anat Peled and Omar Abdel-Baqui
Updated March 25, 2025 10:52 am ET
A Palestinian co-director of an Oscar-winning film who was attacked by Israeli settlers in the West Bank and then detained by Israeli forces was released from Israeli custody on Tuesday after being blindfolded and beaten, according to his lawyer.
Settlers on Monday descended on the West Bank village of Susiya, the hometown of Hamdan Ballal, a co-director of “No Other Land,” according to witnesses and footage. Ballal, who was breaking the Ramadan fast at the time, was beaten by settlers and injured, said his lawyer, Lea Tsemel.
Ballal spent the night blindfolded and bound on the floor of a military camp and was then beaten by a soldier, Tsemel said. The military said that Ballal was transferred to police custody and didn’t immediately respond to the allegations of beatings.
The film, which was created by an Israeli-Palestinian collective, documents life under Israeli occupation. Earlier this month, it won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film.
The Israeli military said several Palestinians “hurled rocks” at Israeli civilians, leading to a violent confrontation. The military and police arrived to disperse the confrontation and detained three Palestinian suspects for further questioning after they threw rocks at security forces and an Israeli citizen, according to the statement. It said an Israeli civilian was also injured.
Settler violence has been on the rise since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu established the most right-wing, religious and ultranationalist coalition in Israeli history in 2022.
Settler leaders who took up positions as ministers, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, have held outsize sway in the governing coalition. They have expanded settlements and called for annexing the occupied West Bank, where some three million Palestinians live.
Raviv Rose, a Jewish activist from the Center for Jewish Nonviolence who was present at the scene with other activists, said about 15 settlers dressed in civilian clothes, some masked, attacked a car the activists were riding in, smashing windows and slashing tires.
The center, which promotes peaceful resistance to Israeli occupation, provided video footage that backed up the account to The Wall Street Journal, showing masked men shoving and hitting the activists after they got out of the car. “Get out of here,” one of the men screams in Hebrew at the activists. The military didn’t stop the settlers from attacking, Rose said.
Tsemel, Ballal’s lawyer, who is also representing the other two Palestinians who were detained and released, told the Journal she wasn’t able to speak to her clients until Tuesday morning. She said Ballal was held in a military camp for medical treatment.
Ballal’s lawyer, Lea Tsemel, told the Journal that as of Tuesday morning she hadn’t been able to speak with her client and was waiting for him to be brought to the police station for questioning. She said she had been informed that Ballal was being held in a military camp for medical treatment.
“As usual, the settlers start it and they detain the Palestinian residents,” Tsemel said.
Jenna, a Jewish American activist with the Center for Jewish Nonviolence, said Israeli troops prevented the activists from nearing Ballal’s home during the attack. When they made it to his house after he was detained, they found blood on the floor, she said.
While “No Other Land” was widely celebrated for highlighting human-rights issues and fostering dialogue between Palestinians and Israelis, its production also came under criticism from parts of Palestinian and Israeli society. Some Israelis, including government officials, claimed the documentary unfairly criticized Israel, while some Palestinians said it normalized the existence of the state of Israel and its occupation of Palestinian territory.
“The Oscar win for the film ‘No Other Land’ is a sad moment for the world of cinema,” Miki Zohar, the Israeli minister of culture and sports, said in early March. “Turning the defamation of Israel into a tool for international promotion is not art—it is sabotage against the State of Israel,” he said.
The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, an organization that promotes the use of boycotts, divestments and sanctions of Israeli products and endeavors, says the film should be boycotted.
“The BDS movement has always fought against normalization as a powerful weapon employed by oppressors to whitewash their crimes, to colonize the minds of the oppressed, and to undermine global solidarity with the struggle to end oppression,” it wrote.
B’Tselem, an Israeli human-rights organization, has documented hundreds of cases of harassment and attacks by settlers against Palestinians and their villages in the West Bank this year, including more than 90 in Susiya.
The settler violence threatens to further destabilize the West Bank, where the Israeli military has also conducted more frequent large-scale military raids it says are aimed at Palestinian militants.
The Israeli military in recent months has conducted a military operation in the West Bank to crack down on what it says is terrorist infrastructure. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said 40,000 Palestinians have been displaced from their homes in Jenin, Tulkarem and Nur Shams since the start of the operation.
By Anat Peled and Omar Abdel-Baqui
Updated March 25, 2025 10:52 am ET
A Palestinian co-director of an Oscar-winning film who was attacked by Israeli settlers in the West Bank and then detained by Israeli forces was released from Israeli custody on Tuesday after being blindfolded and beaten, according to his lawyer.
Settlers on Monday descended on the West Bank village of Susiya, the hometown of Hamdan Ballal, a co-director of “No Other Land,” according to witnesses and footage. Ballal, who was breaking the Ramadan fast at the time, was beaten by settlers and injured, said his lawyer, Lea Tsemel.
Ballal spent the night blindfolded and bound on the floor of a military camp and was then beaten by a soldier, Tsemel said. The military said that Ballal was transferred to police custody and didn’t immediately respond to the allegations of beatings.
The film, which was created by an Israeli-Palestinian collective, documents life under Israeli occupation. Earlier this month, it won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film.
The Israeli military said several Palestinians “hurled rocks” at Israeli civilians, leading to a violent confrontation. The military and police arrived to disperse the confrontation and detained three Palestinian suspects for further questioning after they threw rocks at security forces and an Israeli citizen, according to the statement. It said an Israeli civilian was also injured.
Settler violence has been on the rise since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu established the most right-wing, religious and ultranationalist coalition in Israeli history in 2022.
Settler leaders who took up positions as ministers, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, have held outsize sway in the governing coalition. They have expanded settlements and called for annexing the occupied West Bank, where some three million Palestinians live.
Raviv Rose, a Jewish activist from the Center for Jewish Nonviolence who was present at the scene with other activists, said about 15 settlers dressed in civilian clothes, some masked, attacked a car the activists were riding in, smashing windows and slashing tires.
The center, which promotes peaceful resistance to Israeli occupation, provided video footage that backed up the account to The Wall Street Journal, showing masked men shoving and hitting the activists after they got out of the car. “Get out of here,” one of the men screams in Hebrew at the activists. The military didn’t stop the settlers from attacking, Rose said.
Tsemel, Ballal’s lawyer, who is also representing the other two Palestinians who were detained and released, told the Journal she wasn’t able to speak to her clients until Tuesday morning. She said Ballal was held in a military camp for medical treatment.
Ballal’s lawyer, Lea Tsemel, told the Journal that as of Tuesday morning she hadn’t been able to speak with her client and was waiting for him to be brought to the police station for questioning. She said she had been informed that Ballal was being held in a military camp for medical treatment.
“As usual, the settlers start it and they detain the Palestinian residents,” Tsemel said.
Jenna, a Jewish American activist with the Center for Jewish Nonviolence, said Israeli troops prevented the activists from nearing Ballal’s home during the attack. When they made it to his house after he was detained, they found blood on the floor, she said.
While “No Other Land” was widely celebrated for highlighting human-rights issues and fostering dialogue between Palestinians and Israelis, its production also came under criticism from parts of Palestinian and Israeli society. Some Israelis, including government officials, claimed the documentary unfairly criticized Israel, while some Palestinians said it normalized the existence of the state of Israel and its occupation of Palestinian territory.
“The Oscar win for the film ‘No Other Land’ is a sad moment for the world of cinema,” Miki Zohar, the Israeli minister of culture and sports, said in early March. “Turning the defamation of Israel into a tool for international promotion is not art—it is sabotage against the State of Israel,” he said.
The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, an organization that promotes the use of boycotts, divestments and sanctions of Israeli products and endeavors, says the film should be boycotted.
“The BDS movement has always fought against normalization as a powerful weapon employed by oppressors to whitewash their crimes, to colonize the minds of the oppressed, and to undermine global solidarity with the struggle to end oppression,” it wrote.
B’Tselem, an Israeli human-rights organization, has documented hundreds of cases of harassment and attacks by settlers against Palestinians and their villages in the West Bank this year, including more than 90 in Susiya.
The settler violence threatens to further destabilize the West Bank, where the Israeli military has also conducted more frequent large-scale military raids it says are aimed at Palestinian militants.
The Israeli military in recent months has conducted a military operation in the West Bank to crack down on what it says is terrorist infrastructure. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said 40,000 Palestinians have been displaced from their homes in Jenin, Tulkarem and Nur Shams since the start of the operation.
