Israeli authorities have released recently Oscar-winning Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Balal, who was arrested by the army after he was attacked by Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank. He said they beat him outside his home while they were filming the attack.
Balal and other directors of "No Other Country," which deals with the struggles of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation, won the award for best documentary at the 97th Academy Awards in Los Angeles.
With bruises on his face and blood on his clothes, he was released from an Israeli police station in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba. He and two other Palestinians who were attacked and detained were taken to a nearby hospital. Balal said he was held at the military base, blindfolded for 24 hours and forced to sleep in the cold.
Lea Tsemel, the lawyer representing the three, said they were given only minimal care for their injuries from the attack and had no access to them for several hours after their arrest.
Palestinian residents say about two dozen settlers, some masked, some armed and some in military uniforms, attacked the West Bank village of Susiya on Monday evening. The soldiers who arrived pointed their weapons at the Palestinians, while the settlers continued to throw stones at them.
Israeli police said the army had transferred three suspects to it for allegedly throwing stones, damaging property and "endangering regional security." The three were reportedly released on the condition that they not contact others involved in the incident.
In testimony given while in custody, Balal said he went out to film the settlers as they attacked the village. When he returned to his home, a known settler who had earlier threatened him appeared with two soldiers.
At the entrance to his house, the settler punched Balal in the head from behind, knocked him to the ground, then kicked him in the body with his boots and beat him on the head and face.
Lamiya Balal, the director's wife, said she was inside with their three children and heard him screaming. When she looked out the window, she saw three men in uniform beating Balal with rifle butts and another person in plainclothes who appeared to be filming the violence.
"Of course, after the Oscars, they started attacking us even more," Lamija said. "I felt scared."
"There is no other country" tells the story of the struggle of the residents of the Masafer Yat area to prevent the Israeli army from demolishing their villages.
The joint Israeli-Palestinian production won a string of international awards, starting with the 2024 Berlin International Film Festival. It also sparked outrage in Israel and abroad, with Miami Beach proposing to terminate the lease of the cinema that was showing it.
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