On March 24, Hamdan Ballal, Palestinian director of Oscar-winning ‘No Other Land’, was beaten and arrested by Israeli settlers in the Masafer Yatta area while trying to protect his family from settler violence.
Five Jewish American activists with the Center for Jewish Nonviolence organisation witnessed the assault, saying a group of about 15 settlers were seen throwing rocks at Palestinians in the West Bank village, as well as destroying infrastructure and a water tank near Hamdan’s house. When Hamdan fled the scene of escalating violence, he was pursued by the settlers, who chased him into his house while his family watched.
After being physically assaulted, Hamdan called an ambulance to assist with his injuries, which resulted in Israeli soldiers invading the vehicle and arresting the bleeding Palestinian.
Witnesses say Israeli soldiers watched the group of settlers beat Hamdan, “shooting in the air” to prevent anyone helping him while he sustained brutal injuries to his head and abdomen. Basel Adra, co-director of ‘No Other Land’, detailed to The Guardian an escalation of the attack, saying “the police were there from the beginning and did not intervene. While the soldiers were pointing their weapons at us, the settlers started attacking the houses of the Palestinians.”
Following the attack, Adra posted on X, stating: “I’m standing with Karam, Hamdan’s 7-year-old son, near the blood of Hamdan’s in his house, after settlers lynched him.”
Adra had previously stated that he suspected the increasing violence in Masafer Yatta was an inflammatory response to the 2025 Academy Awards, in which the Palestinian Israeli collective production won ‘Best Documentary Feature Film’.
‘No Other Land’ notably did not receive American distribution yet was recognised by the Academy for its documentation of the occupation and eviction of Palestinians in the West Bank.
Hamdan Ballal celebrates his Oscar win, Source: ABC News
In his acceptance speech, Yuval Abraham said of Adra: “Can’t you see that we are intertwined? That my people can’t be truly safe if his people aren’t truly safe and free? It’s not too late for life and the living. There is no other way.”
Since the Oscars (March 3, 2025), Adra has posted on X that Israeli forces in Hebron were intensifying, saying the day after he returned from the Oscars a masked group of settlers invaded his neighbours’ houses, “assault[ing] the family members, spray[ing] pepper spray in their eyes, and smash[ing] activists’ phones”. He continued, saying “we risked our life to film [No Other Land],” and later reported to The Guardian that he believed growing settler violence could be “revenge for the movie and the Oscar2”.
This punishment towards the filmmakers and their community isn’t an isolated narrative. Deplorable as it would be to reduce these alleged crimes to a convenient idiom, this is no longer shooting the messenger, it’s torturing, slaughtering, and expelling the messenger.
No Other Land Director, Basel Adra looking at a damaged car, Source: NPR
On March 24, 2025, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) reported that at least 154 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed during the war in Gaza, with many more injured and reported missing.
Since this war began, the indescribable has been described by journalists and artists; the unbearable, bore. Most of us have floundered as witnesses to the bloodshed, yet these people have looked persecution in the eye and roared. If you’re reading this, you are an echo to this outcry, and echos are effective – they enhance voices – but only on the principle that the voice is alive.
The IFJ stated in their aforementioned report, “no story is worth the life of a journalist”, and yet so many journalists have been lost in the pursuit of publication, a fact that is puncturing us right now.
Who’s going to tell our stories when our eyes are blinded, our ears deafened, our grip on this fight so close to breaking? Once we’ve lost the ability to commune, to go forward with shared knowledge, what have we got?
Yet, as the directors pleaded in their Oscars acceptance speech, it is not too late for life and the living. As pulverising as these deaths are, it is not too late.
Hamden’s film is a call to action, and his arrest is its loudest throttle. There is no other way. There is no other land. This genocide is killing our storytellers; we as listeners cannot let that happen.
So engage. Even though it hurts, even though it feels impossible and hopeless and never-ending. It will end. Yuval Abraham said Israelis and Palestinians are intertwined. And so are we. As readers, we are intertwined with writers. As viewers, we are intertwined with artists. As sharers, we are intertwined with journalists. Yes, there is immeasurable grief, and we are intertwined with death, but we are also intertwined with life, with the strength to push harder, dig deeper, and hope and hope and hope. We may be distanced, but we can keep showing up, we can opt back in, and we can create political change.
There is no other way.
Hamdan was released by Israeli forces on Tuesday, March 25th.