Israel detains director after West Bank settler clash

The director of Oscar-winning documentary 'No Other Land' was arrested and beaten

Hamdan Ballal with his Oscar for "No Other Land"
Hamdan Ballal with his Oscar for 'No Other Land,' which depicts the destruction of the West Bank's Masafer Yatta by Israeli soldiers
(Image credit: Angela Weiss / AFP via Getty Images)

What happened

Israeli authorities arrested Hamdan Ballal, the Palestinian co-director of this year's Oscar-winning documentary "No Other Land," in his West Bank village of Susya on Monday evening and released him Tuesday afternoon, beaten and bruised from what he and witnesses described as an attack by Israeli settlers aided by Israeli soldiers. Ballal was "handcuffed all night and beaten in a military base," said Yuval Abraham, the film's Israeli co-director.

Who said what

Israeli and Palestinian witnesses "provided conflicting accounts" of events, The New York Times said, with the settlers and villagers both claiming they were defending themselves and Israeli police saying Ballal and two other Palestinians were detained on "suspicion of hurling stones, property damage and 'endangering regional security,'" charges all three deny.

Ballal told The Associated Press that a known settler attacked him as he was guarding his home, kicking his head "like a football" while two Israeli soldiers watched or joined in. Ballal said he was blindfolded for 20 hours in a frigid cell and overheard Hebrew-speaking soldiers saying "Oscar" and his name, so "I realized they were attacking me specifically."

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What next?

The "episode drew attention to rising attacks by hard-line Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank," the Times said. According to Basel Adra, another co-director of "No Other Land," there has been a "massive upswing in attacks by settlers and Israeli forces since the Oscar win," the AP said.

Rafi Schwartz, The Week US

Rafi Schwartz has worked as a politics writer at The Week since 2022, where he covers elections, Congress and the White House. He was previously a contributing writer with Mic focusing largely on politics, a senior writer with Splinter News, a staff writer for Fusion's news lab, and the managing editor of Heeb Magazine, a Jewish life and culture publication. Rafi's work has appeared in Rolling Stone, GOOD and The Forward, among others.