One of the co-directors of the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land has been beaten and detained, according to his fellow filmmaker.
Israeli director Yuval Abraham claimed on X, formerly Twitter, on Monday that a group of settlers had beaten Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal, who was later detained by members of the Israeli military. “He has injuries in his head and stomach, bleeding. Soldiers invaded the ambulance he called, and took him,” Abraham wrote.
The Associated Press has additionally cited members of the activist group Center for Jewish Nonviolence, which said that the violence took place as settlers allegedly attacked the village of Susiya, which is Ballal’s hometown, in the Masafer Yatta area. The group echoed that Ballal was detained as he was in an ambulance.
Residents of the area said that “the soldiers who detained [Ballal] were members of a rapid-response unit composed of settlers from nearby settlements,” a story from Haaretz reports. Those soldiers then passed Ballal off to other soldiers, the Haaretz story reported.
The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to the IDF and the Center for Jewish Nonviolence for comment.
No Other Land, directed by four filmmakers — two Israeli, two Palestinian — took home the prize for best documentary at the 97th annual Academy Awards on March 2.
More to come.