Israeli Settlers Assault Palestinian Filmmaker, Military Detains Him
In an alarming event in the occupied West Bank on Monday, Israeli settlers assaulted a Palestinian filmmaker behind the Oscar-winning documentary “No Other Land,” before he was detained by the Israeli forces, as reported by on-site Jewish activists.
According to the activist group Center for Jewish Nonviolence, a group of settlers wreaked havoc in the Palestinian village of Susiya, located in the Masafer Yatta region, damaging local properties in their attack.
Captured by an Associated Press photo, Salem Adra, the brother of Palestinian activist Basel Adra, renowned for winning the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature with “No Other Land,” is seen conversing with a local shepherd in Tuwani, a West Bank village neighboring an Israeli outpost, dated Monday, March 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
The activists reported that Hamdan Ballal, one of the documentary’s co-directors, was injured in the assault, leaving him with a head wound. As medical personnel attended to his injuries in an ambulance, he and another Palestinian man were taken into custody by soldiers.
The Israeli military acknowledged it was investigating the incident but refrained from providing an immediate statement.
The attack involved 10-20 masked settlers who targeted Ballal and fellow Jewish activists with stones and sticks, leading to damaged cars with shattered windows and slashed tires.
Footage released by the Center for Jewish Nonviolence captured a masked settler aggressively confronting two group activists in a nighttime altercation in a dusty field. The activists hurried back to their vehicle, rapidly urging one another to enter as rocks were hurled at them.
“No Other Land,” recognized with an Oscar this year for best documentary, portrays the ongoing battle faced by Masafer Yatta’s villagers against the Israeli military’s efforts to demolish their communities. The film is a collaborative work featuring two Palestinian co-directors, Ballal and Basel Adra, both inhabitants of Masafar Yatta, alongside Israeli directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor.