Oscar-Winning Director Hamdan Ballal Was Beaten and Arrested in the West Bank

Just weeks after appearing at the Oscars to accept the award for Best Documentary Feature, Palestinian director Hamdan Ballal, who was one of four directors on the project, has reportedly been beaten and kidnapped in the West Bank.

Ballal was one of the directors of No Other Land and was part of a team of Israelis and Palestinians documenting the conditions Palestinians faced under Israeli occupation.

Following news that he had been attacked, many wanted to know more about what happened. Here's what we know.

Director Yuvdam Abraham, one of Ballal's co-directors, wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that "a group of settlers just lynched Hamdan Ballal, co director of our film No Other Land. They beat him and he has injuries in his head and stomach, bleeding. Soldiers invaded the ambulance he called and took him. No sign of him since."

Abraham later clarified that his use of "lynched" was a mistranslation from Hebrew and that Ballal is still alive.

After being held overnight, Abraham announced that Ballal was allowed to return home to his family. The incident apparently took place in Susiya, Masafer Yatta, a Palestinian village. The news that Ballal had been arrested caused an immediate uproar, especially because it so completely echoed the message of No Other Land, which is that Palestinians are not treated as equal citizens.

The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) did not confirm whether Ballal was taken into custody. “When IDF and police forces arrived at the scene to disperse the clashes, several terrorists began throwing stones at the security forces,” an IDF spokesperson told NBC. “In response, the forces arrested three Palestinians suspected of throwing stones at the force and an Israeli citizen who was involved in the violent clashes. The detainees were taken to the Israel Police for further questioning."

Reports of settlers clashing violently with Palestinians are, unfortunately, not at all uncommon in recent years, and that violence increased in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack. Although Ballal has been released, this small story seems to be a microcosm of the broader situation in Gaza and the West Bank, where Palestinians are treated as second-class citizens and settlers continue to encroach on land that they were promised.

There has been plenty of discussion in the months since the Oct. 7 attack about whether any remedy between the Palestinians and Israelis could lead to a lasting peace. For now, though, that seems unlikely. A two-month ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came to a violent end after Israel resumed its bombing campaign in Gaza.

The violence between these two groups stretches back decades. Regardless of the specifics of this instance, the Palestinians are the ones losing their homes and their territory and the ones who have had their buildings demolished. That, at least, is crystal clear.