In the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal was released Tuesday from Israeli detention after being brutally attacked on Monday, first by a mob of masked Israeli settlers and then by Israeli soldiers. Three weeks ago, Ballal won an Oscar for co-directing the documentary “No Other Land” about violent Israeli settlers trying to seize Ballal’s community in Masafer Yatta. Ballal said Israeli soldiers held him overnight blindfolded and handcuffed at a military base. He spoke on Tuesday from a hospital in Hebron, where he was receiving treatment.
Hamdan Ballal: “You know, it’s like — overnight, it’s like many times, but this is first time — OK? — they came, the soldiers, with the settlers, attacking me and beating me and destroyed me. This is first time. And this came — it’s like, first, I got the Oscar awards. So, this, like, lets you, like, think, 'Why they're attacking you like this?’ It’s like hard attack after the Oscar. In the beginning, yes, there’s attack, but not like this. The army, they tried to stop the settlers. But this attack, they came, the soldiers. They came, attacking me with the settlers.”