“Even the Oscar can’t protect you”: “No Other Land” director reportedly attacked by Israeli settlers

Oscar-winning Palestinian director Hamdan Ballal was reportedly attacked by Israeli settlers in the West Bank on Monday. 

Activist groups and left-wing Israeli politicians claimed that the co-director of “No Other Land” was attacked by the settlers in the village of Susya. Video shared by the Center for Jewish Nonviolence on social media appears to show masked settlers attacking activists who were on the scene to document their actions. The clip shows two masked people shoving members of the group before other assailants attack the group’s vehicle, shattering the car’s windshield with a rock.

“Hamdan Ballal was attacked by Israeli settlers and arrested by the Israeli army in his home village of Susiya in Masafer Yatta. We do not know his current whereabouts or condition,” the group shared. “The group of assailants arrived at approximately 6 PM with batons, knives, and at least one assault rifle; many were also masked.”

Israeli politician Ofer Cassif shared that he has been unable to confirm where Ballal was being held.

“Not only was he wounded severely, he was kidnapped directly out of the ambulance during his medical evacuation, and arrested by the Israeli military. All attempts to receive official confirmation of his location, including personally by me (a member of Parliament) have failed,” he shared on X. “His whereabouts are still unknown and his life and liberty are in grave danger. Under the tyrannical occupation, even the Oscar can’t protect you from harm.”

Ballal was one of four directors of the Oscar-winning doc, which followed the forced displacement of Palestinians in Masafer Yatta, the same region of the West Bank where Monday’s attack occurred. Co-director Yuval Abraham, an Israeli investigative journalist, said Ballal was “lynched” by settlers in a post to X.

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

Masafer Yatta, a rural area in the South Hebron Hills, was declared off-limits to civilians by the Israeli military in the 1980s. The area has been designated a “firing zone,” ostensibly to be used as a training ground for the Israeli military. However, many Palestinians remain in the area, under constant risk of displacement from settlers or the military.

“My hope to my daughter [is that] she will not have to live the same life I’m living now, always fearing settler violence, home demolitions and forced displacement that my community faces under Israeli occupation,” Director Basel Adra said during his victory speech at the 2025 Oscars. “‘No Other Land’ reflects the harsh reality that we’ve been enduring for decades and still resist as we call on the world to take serious actions to stop the injustice and stop the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people.”