‘No Other Land’ filmmaker Hamdan Ballal freed, says co-director
Following the Palestinian filmmaker’s attack and arrest, directors including Alex Gibney and Liz Garbus signed a petition calling for his release
Following his attack by Israeli settlers and subsequent arrest by Israeli authorities, Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal — the co-director of the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land — has been freed.
“After being handcuffed all night and beaten in a military base, Hamdan Ballal is now free and is about to go home to his family,” Ballal’s co-director Yuval Abraham wrote on X. It was Abraham’s posts that helped circulate the news of Ballal’s attack, which occurred just outside his West Bank village home.
Abraham first reported on Monday, March 24 that Ballal was “lynched,” but then issued a correction: “Note: Hamdan was assaulted and beaten up, not murdered,” he said. “My use of ‘lynched’ was a mistranslation from Hebrew (English isn’t my first language). He’s injured and being held at a police station in a settlement. They did not let his lawyer speak to him yet so we don’t know more.”
The Center for Jewish Nonviolence (CJNV), an activist group with members who were on the scene, told Rolling Stone in a statement that “dozens of settlers” attacked the Palestinian village of Susiya in the Masafer Yatta area of the southern West Bank, which occurred on Monday around 6 p.m. local time. The masked assailants — who were reportedly carrying weapons that included knives, batons, and at least one assault rifle — allegedly attacked “two homes, destroyed water tanks, and stole security cameras.”
Ballal’s attack and arrest made international news, and resulted in several filmmakers signing a petition calling for his release. As of this writing, it has nearly 7,000 signatures.
“Reports that Mr. Ballal was forcibly removed by the Israeli army from an ambulance following a brutal attack by settlers, and subsequently detained without clear information regarding his whereabouts, deeply alarm us,” reads the petition, which was signed by Alex Gibney, Liz Garbus, Roger Ross Williams, and others. “Such treatment of an internationally acclaimed filmmaker gravely undermines artistic freedom, human rights, and freedom of speech — core values vital to democratic societies.”
Commenting on IndieWire’s Instagram post, actor Mark Ruffalo wrote, “Every filmmaker and academy member should be acting together in protest. No matter where you stand on this issue this is an attack on our beloved art from of filmmaking. Hamden Ballal is a political prisoner, and this is an international incident and violation of human rights. Many of us are not surprised by this behavior from the lawless settlers and the IDF at this point. Kill journalists and abducting filmmakers is not an accident but a design for the eradication of a people and their culture. Free Ballal!”
Filmed by both Palestinian and Israeli activists, No Other Land was co-directed by Ballal, Abraham, Basel Adra, and Rachel Szor. Prior to winning the Oscar for Best Documentary, Adra and Abraham spoke to Rolling Stone about the situation in the West Bank and whether or not the nomination has helped. “So far, it has not,” Adra said. “That’s the sad part. The movie is doing very well outside, in festivals, among audiences, and having a focus from media. But the situation on the ground is going very badly.”
Added Abraham: “We are going to continue to document, because that is what we do. I don’t know how effective it is and I can still hope it will have some effect eventually. But right now, as Basel said, it’s very hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel.”