France condemns attack of Oscar-winning Palestinian director
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The director of the film was attacked by Israeli settlers before Israeli Occupation Forces raided the ambulance he was in and abducted him.
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Hamdan Ballal, Oscar-winning Palestinian director of "No Other Land," is released from a police station in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba a day after being detained by the Israeli army following an attack by Jewish settlers, March 25, 2025. (AP)
France condemned the attack Israeli settlers launched on the Oscar-winning Palestinian director Hamdan Ballal in the occupied West Bank.
“France condemns the growing violence committed by extremist settlers against the Palestinian population throughout the West Bank, especially in Masafer Yatta and Susya,” the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday, adding that “The Israeli authorities must punish the perpetrators of this violence, which continues with complete impunity, and must protect Palestinian civilians."
The ministry further emphasized that settlement activity constitutes a violation of international law while noting that the International Court of Justice has imposed sanctions against “extremist settlers,” underscoring the legal consequences associated with such actions.
Oscar-winning Palestinian filmmaker abducted
On March 24, Hamdan Ballal, the Palestinian co-director of the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, was assaulted by Israeli settlers and later abducted by the Israeli military in the occupied West Bank, according to his co-director, Yuval Abraham.
Abraham reported that a group of settlers had assaulted Ballal, causing head and stomach injuries that led to bleeding, in a post on X.
A group of settlers just lynched Hamdan Ballal, co director of our film no other land. They beat him and he has injuries in his head and stomach, bleeding. Soldiers invaded the ambulance he called, and took him. No sign of him since.
— Yuval Abraham יובל אברהם (@yuval_abraham) March 24, 2025
"They beat him and he has injuries in his head and stomach, bleeding. Soldiers invaded the ambulance he called, and took him. No sign of him since," Abraham wrote, while Basel Adra, another co-director of the documentary, said Ballal "is still missing after soldiers abducted him, injured and bleeding."
Hamdan Ballal’s lawyer has been unable to establish contact with her client, raising concerns about his condition and whereabouts.
Lea Tsemel, who is also representing two other Palestinians detained in the village of Susiya, told the Associated Press that while police claimed her clients were being held at a military base for medical treatment, she has yet to reach them and has received no further updates on their status.
The documentary feature film No Other Land, which highlights the Israeli displacement of a Palestinian community, won an Oscar on March 2, with its directors calling for global action and accusing the United States of blocking a resolution.
The film's co-directors, Palestinian activist Basel Adra and Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham spent five years creating the documentary. It captures Israeli soldiers demolishing homes and forcibly removing residents to establish a military training zone, as well as the expansion of Jewish settlements into the Palestinian community.
The documentary emphasizes the contrasting realities faced by the two friends—Abraham, who has a yellow Israeli number plate allowing him to travel freely, and Adra, who is confined to a shrinking territory that grows increasingly restrictive for Palestinians.
