Wife of Palestinian film director says he was savagely beaten outside his home
Hamdan Ballal and two other Palestinians detained with him were released on Tuesday afternoon.
The wife of an Oscar-winning Palestinian director who was reportedly attacked by Jewish settlers before being detained by the Israeli army said that he was beaten in front of his home by three men in military fatigues while another filmed it.
Hamdan Ballal and the other directors of No Other Land, which looks at the struggles of living under Israeli occupation, appeared on stage at the 97th Academy Awards in Los Angeles earlier this month when it won the award for best documentary film.
Mr Ballal and two other Palestinians detained with him were released on Tuesday afternoon from a police station in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba.
Mr Ballal had bruises on his face and blood on his clothes, and the three were driven to a hospital in the neighbouring Palestinian city of Hebron, according to Associated Press journalists at the scene.
Their lawyer, Lea Tsemel, said they spent the night on the floor of a military base while receiving only minimal care for their injuries from the alleged attack.
She had earlier said they were accused of throwing stones at a young settler, allegations they deny.
Palestinian residents say around two dozen settlers — some masked, some carrying guns and some in military uniforms — attacked the West Bank village of Susiya on Monday evening as residents were breaking their fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Soldiers who arrived pointed their guns at the Palestinians, while settlers continued throwing stones, they said.
The Israeli military said on Monday it had detained three Palestinians suspected of hurling rocks at forces and one Israeli civilian involved in a what it described as a violent confrontation.
Lamia Ballal, the director’s wife, said she heard her husband being beaten outside their home as she huddled inside with their three children.
She said she heard him screaming, “I’m dying!” and calling for an ambulance. When she looked out of the window, she said she saw three men in uniform beating Mr Ballal with the butts of their rifles and another person in civilian clothes who appeared to be filming the violence.
“Of course, after the Oscar, they have come to attack us more,” she said. “I felt afraid.”
West Bank settlers are often armed and sometimes wear military-style clothing that makes it difficult to distinguish them from soldiers.
On Tuesday, a small bloodstain could be seen outside their home, and the car’s windshield and windows were shattered. Neighbours pointed to a nearby water tank with a hole in the side that they said had been punched by the settlers.
No Other Land chronicles the struggle by residents of the Masafer Yatta area to stop the Israeli military from demolishing their villages.
The joint Israeli-Palestinian production has won a string of international awards, starting at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2024. It has also drawn ire in Israel and abroad.
Basel Adra, another of the film’s co-directors who is a prominent Palestinian activist in the area, said there has been a massive upswing in attacks by settlers and Israeli forces since the Oscar win.
“Nobody can do anything to stop the pogroms, and soldiers are only there to facilitate and help the attacks,” he said. “We’re living in dark days here, in Gaza, and all of the West Bank… Nobody’s stopping this.”
Masked settlers with sticks also attacked Jewish activists in the area on Monday, smashing their car windows and slashing tyres, according to Josh Kimelman, an activist with the Centre for Jewish Nonviolence. Video provided by the group showed a masked settler shoving and swinging his fists at two activists in a dusty field at night.
Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war, along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. The Palestinians want all three for their future state and view settlement growth as a major obstacle to a two-state solution. Most of the international community considers the settlements illegal.
Israel has built more than 100 settlements, home to more than 500,000 settlers who have Israeli citizenship. The three million Palestinians in the West Bank live under seemingly open-ended Israeli military rule, with the western-backed Palestinian Authority administering population centres.
