Hamdan Ballal, the Palestinian co-director of Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, says his family has been attacked again by Israeli settlers, leaving one of his brothers hospitalised.
“Nearly a year after we won the Oscar, the same settler who attacked me shortly after I returned from Los Angeles again led an attack against my home and my family. Four of my family members are currently arrested and one is in the hospital,” Ballal posted on social media on Sunday via the film's Instagram account.
“Two weeks ago we managed to get a decision from the Israeli court that the area around my home is closed to non-residents, but the settlers break that order and still come with their flocks almost every day,” he added. “We call the police, they do nothing. The army comes, they do nothing.”
The incident occurred hours after Israel’s government approved a plan to allow land registration in the West Bank for the first time since 1967, a move that opponents say paves the way for annexation of the occupied Palestinian territory.
Ballal, who is credited as co-director of No Other Land, was attacked in his village of Susya in the occupied West Bank in March last year, weeks after the film made global headlines following its historic Oscar win.
He sustained injuries to his head and stomach and was later arrested by Israeli authorities along with two other men, prompting an outcry from the global film industry. The trio were released a day later, with Ballal showing bruises on his face and blood on his clothes, according to AP reporters who witnessed the men leave Kiryat Arba police station.
Ballal shares directing credits on No Other Land with Israeli filmmaker Rachel Szor, Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham and Palestinian journalist Basel Adra. The documentary follows Adra and his community in Masafer Yatta, a cluster of about 20 villages in the West Bank, as they try to protect their homes amid tensions with settlers.
In his statement on Sunday, Ballal said the situation escalated when his brother called police to report an incursion.
“The army came first and immediately raided our house, attacking everyone inside,” he said. “Then they arrested two of my brothers, a nephew and a cousin. Another brother was badly injured and is now in the hospital.
“The Israeli court decision was supposed to make things a bit quieter for us. But the opposite has been true. The settlers have ramped up their harassment and the Israeli authorities have done nothing to enforce the decision, and today they joined the settlers in the attack.”
Ballal has called on journalists and diplomats to visit him and his family on Tuesday “to hear about how the situation has gotten worse in the year since we won the Oscar, as it has across the West Bank”.
