New Delhi: One of the four makers of the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, Hamdan Ballal, has been attacked by Israeli settlers and then arrested by the Israeli army from inside an ambulance.Two of Ballal’s co-directors, Yuval Abraham and Basel Adra, tweeted about the violence Ballal faced and his arrest. “I’m standing with Karam, Hamdan’s 7 year old son, near the blood of Hamdan’s in his house, after settlers lynched him. Hamdan, co-director of our film No Other Land, is still missing after soldiers abducted him, injured and bleeding. This is how they erase Masafer Yatta,” Adra said. Abraham shared videos of masked settlers who attacked Ballal. Ballal’s whereabouts are currently unknown.The attack took place on Monday night in Susiya village, Masafer Yatta in the West Bank, where Ballal is from.Five Jewish American activists from the Center for Jewish Nonviolence witnessed the attack. A video they have provided showed a masked settler shoving and swinging his fists at two activists from the group in a dusty field at night.“The settlers destroyed his car with stones and slashed one of the tyres. All the windows and windshields were broken,” one of the witnesses, Raviv, told The Guardian.According to Ballal’s family, he was hit on the head by the settlers and was bleeding profusely.Adra also spoke to The Guardian, alleging that the police witnessed the attack and did nothing to stop it. “Hamdan tried to protect his family and the settlers attacked him. Soldiers started shooting in the air to prevent anyone to help Hamdan. He was shouting for help. They let the settlers attack him and then the army abducted him,” he said.The Israeli Defence Forces have released a statement saying there was a violent confrontation between Palestinians and Israelis after “terrorists” threw rocks at Israeli citizens. “The forces apprehended three Palestinians suspected of hurling rocks at them, as well as an Israeli civilian involved in the violent confrontation. The detainees were taken for further questioning by the Israel Police,” the statement says. No Other Land documents the struggles of Palestinian residents of Masafer Yatta and the constant attempts by Israeli settlers and the army to take over the land and demolish Palestinian properties. The film won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. The film was made under extreme difficulties, with Adra’s equipment being seized by Israeli forces and most distributors unwilling to screen it.Even after the film received global attention and accolades, the filmmakers had pointed out that the situation is Masafer Yatta was worsening by the day. “Despite the exciting success of the film in festivals and among journalists and audiences around the world, however, the situation here on the ground is deteriorating rapidly and the future looks bleak. Over the past 16 months, Israeli settlers and the military have taken advantage of the atmosphere of the war to reshape reality in Masafer Yatta in favor of settlers and their outposts, intensifying their efforts to displace us from our land. Even as I write this, the Israeli army is conducting a major demolition operation in the community of Khalet A-Daba, razing homes, toilets, solar panels, and trees,” Adra wrote last month.
