Hamdan Ballal’s documentary No Different Land portrays the destruction of the Palestinian neighborhood within the West Financial institution
Hamdan Ballal, a Palestinian co-director of the documentary ‘No Different Land’, was injured after being attacked by a gaggle of settlers within the West Financial institution and is now in Israeli police custody, in keeping with eyewitnesses and a fellow filmmaker. The film, which gained the Finest Documentary Characteristic award on the Oscars in 2024, exhibits the destruction of a Palestinian neighborhood within the area occupied by Israel since 1967.
Yuval Abraham, an Israeli journalist and co-director of the movie, mentioned Ballal was crushed and later detained. “A bunch of settlers simply lynched Hamdan Ballal… He has accidents in his head and abdomen, bleeding. Troopers invaded the ambulance he known as, and took him. No signal of him since,” Abraham wrote on X on Monday.
Later, he clarified that by “lynched“, he meant that Ballal had been assaulted, however not murdered, including that the filmmaker is now being held at a police station and that his lawyer has not but been allowed to see him.
In line with The Guardian, the incident occurred in Susya, a village south of town of Hebron. 5 Jewish American activists from the Middle for Jewish Nonviolence informed the paper that round 15 armed settlers surrounded and attacked Ballal. “They began throwing stones in direction of Palestinians and destroyed a water tank close to Hamdan’s home,” mentioned one of many witnesses who spoke on situation of anonymity.
The group of armed KKK-like masked settlers that lynched No Different Land director Hamdan Ballal (nonetheless lacking), caught right here on digicam. pic.twitter.com/kFGFxSEanY
— Yuval Abraham יובל אברהם (@yuval_abraham) March 24, 2025
Abraham additionally launched a ten-second clip purportedly taken from the dashcam of Ballal’s automotive. It confirmed a gaggle of masked males – some carrying sticks – operating towards the automotive within the night time, with one determine throwing a rock on the windshield. One other video circulating on social media exhibits what seems to be a quick conflict between Ballal’s group and the settlers.
A bunch of Israeli terrorists tried to lynch Bilal Hamdan, the co-director of the Oscar-winning documentary “No Different Land” close to his residence city of Hebron earlier in the present day. Hamdan was critically injured and brought away by the Israeli military. pic.twitter.com/1rIu5bpS7g
— Palestine within the UK (@PalMissionUK) March 24, 2025
The Israel Protection Forces (IDF) confirmed the conflict however with out figuring out these concerned by identify. “A number of terrorists hurled rocks at Israeli residents, damaging their automobiles close to Susya. Following this, a violent confrontation broke out, involving mutual rock-hurling between Palestinians and Israelis.”
The IDF mentioned its forces “apprehended three Palestinians suspected of hurling rocks at them, in addition to an Israeli civilian concerned within the violent confrontation.” The assertion additionally not directly denied Abraham’s declare in regards to the circumstances of Ballal’s arrest, saying that “no Palestinian was apprehended from inside an ambulance.”
The incident comes amid long-running tensions within the West Financial institution between Palestinian residents and Israeli settlers. Lately, the Israeli judiciary has on a number of events permitted orders of compelled evictions of Palestinians that affected lots of of individuals. Clashes have change into extra frequent because the begin of the Israel-Hamas warfare in October 2023.
