Earlier this month, No Other Land, the Israeli-Palestinian documentary, was picked as the Best Documentary Feature at the 97th Academy Awards. Directors Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor and Hamdan Ballal's powerful acceptance speech was one the major highlight of this year's Oscars.
A few weeks later, Hamdan Ballal, the Palestinian director was detained by Israeli forces after being attacked by settlers in the occupied West Bank. He was released by Israel authorities on Tuesday.
Yuval Abraham, the Israeli director, now shared a post on his X handle, where he called out the US Academy for declining to ''publicly support Hamdan Ballal while he was beaten and tortured by Israeli soldiers and settlers.''
Abraham's post further read: The European Academy voiced support, as did countless other award groups and festivals. Several US Academy members—especially in the documentary branch—pushed for a statement, but it was ultimately refused. We were told that because other Palestinians were beaten up in the settler attack, it could be considered unrelated to the film, so they felt no need to respond.''
He also said that Hamdan was clearly targeted for making No Other Land and for being Palestinian.
Further denouncing the US Academy, he said that they chose to ''remain silent when a filmmaker they honored, living under Israeli occupation, needed them the most''.
Towards the end of his post, the director wrote, ''It라이브 바카라 not too late to change this stance. Even now, issuing a statement condemning the attack on Hamdan and the Masafer Yatta community would send a meaningful message and serve as a deterrent for the future.''
Have a look at his post here.
After Ballal's release, Abraham shared a post where he stated that the former was being ''handcuffed all night and beaten in a military base''.
Ballal also recounted his ordeal to The Associated Press. He shared how he was heavily beaten by an Israeli settler and soldiers the night before. The director said, the settler kicked his head “like a football” during a settler attack on his village.
Ballal also shared he was kept blindfolded for more than 20 hours, sitting on the floor under a freezing air conditioner. Though he doesn’t speak Hebrew, but he said he heard them saying his name and the word “Oscar.”
No Other Land, revolves around the fight over West Bank's Masafer Yatta and the friendship between Adra and Abraham.
