Settlers attack Oscar-winning Palestinian director, then Israel army detains him

The Oscar-winning director of a documentary on settler attacks on Palestinian villages in the occupied West bank was detained late yesterday after settlers attacked his village in the occupied West Bank to steal sheep, a witness said according to Reuters.

Hamdan Ballal, co-director of the award-winning ‘No Other Land’, was attending a gathering for iftar, the end of the daily Ramadan fast, at Susiya village near Hebron, when a group of settlers attacked the gathering, said Jihad Nawajaa, head of the Susiya local council.

“Dozens of settlers attacked the gathering at iftar,” Nawajaa told Reuters by phone. “The young men came out to prevent them, and there were about eight injuries on our side.”

Israeli occupation forces detained three men, including Ballal, who was injured during the standoff, he said. It was unclear how badly he had been injured.

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The Guardian reported that according to five Jewish American activists who witnessed the attack, Ballal was surrounded and attacked by a group of about 15 armed settlers in Susya in the Masafer Yatta area south of Hebron.

“They started throwing stones towards Palestinians and destroyed a water tank near Hamdan’s house,” said Joseph, of the activists from the Centre for Jewish Nonviolence, who asked not to use his full name for security reasons.

Settlers, dressed in military uniform, chased Hamdan to his house and handed him over to the occupation army, the activists added.

‘‘The settlers destroyed his car with stones and slashed one of the tyres,’’ another witness, Raviv, told the Guardian. ‘‘All the windows and windshields were broken.’’

It denied reports that at least one of the Palestinians was arrested in an ambulance.

No Other Land was produced by a Palestinian-Israeli collective and follows the story of a Palestinian activist who befriends an Israeli journalist to help him in his plight for justice as his village in Masafar Yatta comes under attack as a result of Israel’s occupation of the area.

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