Oscar-Winning Hamdan Ballal Released From Israeli Custody Bruised and Bloodied

Palestinian co-director of Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land Hamdan Ballal was released bloodied and bruised from Israeli custody on Tuesday after Israeli officers subjected him to beatings and apparent torture.

Ballal and two other Palestinians who were detained after being attacked by Israeli settlers have been taken to a hospital in the West Bank to retrieve treatment. Ballal told The Associated Press that “all my body is pain” after Israeli soldiers imprisoned him in an army base for more than 20 hours, blindfolded and forced to sleep under the cold blow of an air conditioner.

“I heard the voices of the soldiers, they were laughing about me,” Ballal said. “I heard ‘Oscar’ but I didn’t speak Hebrew.”

Ballal was abducted by Israeli authorities out of his ambulance on Monday after an Israeli settler mob stormed his home village of Susiya, in the Masafer Yatta region of the occupied West Bank. Settlers tore through the village, attacking Palestinian residents and damaging water tanks and Palestinians’ property. Witnesses said that the mob arrived in the village just before iftar, when people break their fast during Ramadan.

Ballal said in testimony to his lawyer that he stepped out of his house to film the attack. He then returned home, where a settler who had previously threatened him was waiting with two Israeli soldiers to attack him.

The activist and filmmaker’s wife, Lamia Ballal, said that settlers have been targeting him directly for his work on No Other Land, which shone a light on the oppression faced by Palestinians in Masafer Yatta, as imposed by the Israeli occupation.

“Of course, after the Oscar, they have come to attack us more,” she told The Associated Press. “I felt afraid.”

As the men attacked the director, she said she heard him screaming, “I’m dying!”

Lamia Ballal said that the men beat her husband with brass knuckles, per CNN, while settlers were throwing stones at her home, where she was sheltering with their three children.

Basel Adra, the other Palestinian co-director of the film, said that Israeli soldiers and police witnessed the beating and were shooting at people who tried to intervene. Adra said that there has been a huge uptick in attacks by Israeli soldiers and settlers since the Oscar win.

“Nobody can do anything to stop the pogroms, and soldiers are only there to facilitate and help the attacks,” Adra said. “We’re living in dark days here, in Gaza, and all of the West Bank … Nobody’s stopping this.”

Najah Mughanam, Ballal’s neighbor, told CNN that settlers “beat up my husband with a shovel,” slashed her water tank, and attempted to steal their sheep. According to Mughanam, settlers have attacked Susiya 45 times since October 7, 2023.

Settlers also attacked five Jewish American activists with the Center for Jewish Nonviolence who were present in the village on the night of the raid, according to CNN. One activist said that the settlers broke the group’s car windows as they were inside and slashed a tire. Another said that this type of violence happens all the time in the occupied West Bank, but has only gotten coverage because of Ballal.