The filmmaker Hamdan Ballal, one of the two Palestinian co -directors behind the Oscar winning documentary “No Other Land”, was arrested Monday at the West Bank occupied by the Israeli army after it was supposedly attacked by settlers.
The Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham, who co -directed “no other land,” wrote on Monday that “a group of settlers simply lynch” to his collaborator. “They hit him and he has wounds in the head and stomach, bleeding.”
“The soldiers invaded the ambulance he called and took it,” Abraham added in his position, which was shared in English and Hebrew. “There are no signs of him since then.”
Anna Lippman, delegate of the Center for Activist Groups for Jewish Non -Violence that recorded and shared videos of the attack on Monday, told The Times through social networks that more than a dozen settlers attacked the Palestinian village Susiya in the Yatta Massacima area, destroying properties. During the attack on Monday night, Ballal was “injured by the settlers.” He was receiving treatment in an ambulance for head injuries, which included swelling and bleeding, when “the soldiers came and took him two other Palestinian men of Susiya,” Lippman said.
“We don't know where it is or its condition,” he added on Monday.
The Jewish non -violence center shared images of Dashcam in Bluesky of someone pushing three people and hitting a group member. The video later shows a person, whose face is covered by a mask, linked by several others, collecting an object of the ground and throwing it into the vehicle, destroying the windshield. The video recorded and shared by Lippman shows an alternative angle of the confrontation.
Activist Josh Kimelman, who was present during the confrontation, told Associated Press on Monday: “We don't know where Hamdan is because he was taken in a bandage.”
Abraham did not immediately respond to the request for additional comments.
In a statement shared with El Times, a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces said that a “violent confrontation” broke out in Susiya after several people who described as “terrorists” allegedly threw rocks to Israeli citizens and damaged their vehicles. The incident involved “Mutual Roca between Palestinians and Israelis on the scene,” said the statement. IDF said its members and the Israel police responded “to disperse the confrontation”, and that the people who described as “terrorists” supposedly began to throw rocks.
The FDI and Israel police arrested three Palestinians and an Israeli person allegedly involved in confrontation. The Israel Police took the four detainees for the Israel Police and an Israeli person to be evacuated to receive medical treatment, according to the statement. The IDF also denied accusations that a Palestinian was arrested from inside an ambulance.
The Times has confirmed that Ballal was among the three people arrested Monday night. He was arrested under suspicion of throwing rocks in the IFF and the Police.
Ballal support was launched on Monday afternoon when the news of his arrest was extended. Palestinian activist Basel Adra, who also co -directed and appears in “No Other Land”, tweeted on Ballal's apprehension and shared a photo of a person with both hands behind him escorted in a vehicle adorned with an Israeli flag. He said his collaborator “is still missing after the soldiers kidnapped, wounded and bleeding.”
He added: “This is how Masafer Yatta deleted.”
The International Documentary Association. He issued a statement in support of Ballal, who claimed that he was “violently attacked and kidnapped in the West Bank” and urged his release. The letter also demanded that the family and community of the filmmaker “be informed about their condition, location and justification of their detention.”
“No other land”, directed by Abraham, Ballal, Adra and Israeli filmmaker Rachel Szor, is a heartbreaking documentary that tells the demolition of Israel of the Palestinian Palestinians in Masafer Yatta to give way to an Israeli military training field, displacing families and communities. The film won the documentary award at the 2025 Academy Awards.
Recently, “no Other Land” was found in the center of tension at the Miami Beach cinema scene. Earlier this month, the mayor of Miami Beach, Steven Meiner, threatened to get funds from cinema subsidies or finish his lease of properties owned by the city if he projected the documentary. In a letter sent to the film's house, Meiner called the movie “A unilateral propaganda attack against the Jewish people that are not consistent with the values of our city and residents.”
Meiner withdrew his threats last week.
In a statement, Abraham replied Meiner's previous criticism that “no other land” was “atrociously anti -Semitic.”
“When the mayor uses the word 'anti -Semitism' to silence the Palestinians and Israelis who proudly oppose occupation and apartheid, fighting for justice and equality, he is emptying it by meaning. It seems to me that it is very dangerous.
“Censorship is always incorrect,” Abraham added. “We made this film to get to the public from us from a wide variety of political views. I think you see the harsh reality of the Massofer Yatta occupation in the West Bank, it becomes impossible to justify it, and that is why the mayor is so afraid of” no other land. “
Times's personnel writer Mark Olsen contributed to this report.
