Oscar-winning Palestinian director assaulted by Israeli settlers and detained, activist group says

One of the Palestinian co-directors of the Oscar-winning film "No Other Land" was beaten up by Israeli settlers before being detained by the military, according to Jewish activists who were at the scene. 

What happened?

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A group of about 10 to 20 settlers attacked the Palestinian village of Susiya in the Masafer Yatta area, destroying property, the Center for Jewish Nonviolence group said.

They used stones and sticks, smashing car windows and slashing tires.

Video provided by the Center for Jewish Nonviolence showed a masked settler shoving and swinging his fists at two activists from the group in a dusty field at night.

Hamdan Ballal, one of the co-directors of the joint Palestinian-Israeli film "No Other Land," was left with a bleeding head. While he was being treated in an ambulance, soldiers came and detained him.

A second Palestinian man was also detained, according to activists. 

‘No Other Land’ film

The backstory:

"No Other Land," which won the Oscar this year for best documentary, chronicles the struggle by residents of Masafer Yatta to stop the Israeli military from demolishing their villages. It has two Palestinian co-directors, Ballal and Basel Adra, both residents of Masafar Yatta, and two Israeli directors, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor.

The film 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, as when Miami Beach briefly proposed ending the lease of a movie theater that screened the documentary.

The documentary was filmed over four years between 2019 and 2023, wrapping production days before Hamas launched its deadly Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel that started the war in Gaza.