Israel confirms detention of Oscar-winning Palestinian director in West Bank

Israeli police told AFP on Tuesday they had detained Oscar-winning Palestinian director Hamdan Ballal in the occupied West Bank, following what activists described as an attack by Israeli settlers.

According to the Israeli military, three Palestinians were apprehended on Monday for “hurling rocks” during a “violent confrontation” between Israelis and Palestinians in the southern West Bank village of Susya.

Activists had said Ballal was one of them, and a police spokesperson confirmed to AFP early Tuesday that he was detained for investigation, without elaborating.

By Tuesday afternoon Ballal had been released, according to Yuval Abraham, who co-directed with him the Oscar-winning documentary film “No Other Land”.

Abraham, who had originally posted about the detention on X, said on Tuesday that “Hamdan Ballal is free and is about to go home to his family.”

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Contacted by AFP, Israeli police did not immediately confirm his release.

On Monday, Abraham said that Ballal was attacked by a “group of settlers” who “beat him”.

“He has injuries in his head and stomach, bleeding. Soldiers invaded the ambulance he called, and took him. No sign of him since.”

Basel Adra, who worked with Ballal and Abraham on the movie, posted a photo on X late Monday showing what he said was the moment Ballal was taken into custody “injured and bleeding”.

Activists from the anti-occupation group Center for Jewish Nonviolence said they witnessed the violence in Susya first-hand while they were there on what they call “protective presence” to deter settler violence.

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Jenna, an American activist who declined to share her full name out of security concerns, told AFP that she saw Israeli forces putting Hamdan and two other Palestinians into a police car.

She said that before Israeli forces arrived, a group of “15 to 20 settlers” had attacked the activists as well as Ballal’s house in the village.

‘Happening on a regular basis’

Jenna said she was “beaten with sticks” and that settlers threw large stones at the car she was travelling in.

She noted that “this type of violence is happening on a regular basis”, and that such incidents have increased sharply in recent months.

The Israeli military said three Palestinians had been apprehended in the Susya area for “hurling rocks at Israeli citizens, damaging their vehicles”.

“Following this, a violent confrontation broke out, involving mutual rock hurling between Palestinians and Israelis”, with “terrorists… hurling rocks” at Israeli forces who arrived at the scene, the military statement said.

It added that “contrary to claims, no Palestinian was apprehended from inside an ambulance.”

Susya is located near Masafer Yatta, a grouping of hamlets south of Hebron city where “No Other Land” is set.

The best documentary at this year’s Academy Awards follows Adra and Abraham, telling the story of forced displacement of Palestinians by Israeli troops and settlers in Masafer Yatta – an area Israel had declared a restricted military zone in the 1980s.

Foreign activists regularly stay in Masafer Yatta’s communities to engage in “protective presence”, which entails accompanying Palestinians as they tend to their crops or shepherd their sheep, and document instances of settler violence.

Rights groups have said that since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza – a separate Palestinian territory – there has been a spike in attacks by Israeli settlers in the West Bank.

Activists reported dozens of instances of settler violence in Masafer Yatta since the start of the year.

The West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, is home to around three million Palestinians, as well as nearly half a million Israelis who live in settlements that are illegal under international law.