Hamdan Ballal: Oscar-winning director speaks after Israeli settler assault in West Bank | EUROtoday

An Oscar-winning Palestinian director attacked within the occupied West Bank says he was held in a single day in jail by Israeli troopers who mocked his award between beatings.

Just three weeks in the past, Hamdan Ballal was given rapturous applause when he accepted the Academy Award for his movie No Other Land.

Now he has spoken out about his ordeal that began on Monday, when his head was “kicked like a football” as he lay within the grime throughout a settler assault on his residence within the occupied space.

Ballal was attending a gathering for the tip of the every day Ramadan quick close to Hebron, when a gaggle of masked males attacked him.

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“In that precise moment, I thought about my family, who were at home,” Ballal advised The Guardian. ‘‘I ran to them and told my wife, ‘Lock the house and keep the children inside.’ They might have attacked me, however by doing so that they wouldn’t have harmed my household.’’

“The soldiers pointed their rifles at me while the settler from behind began beating me,” Ballal mentioned.

“They threw me to the ground, and the settler started hitting me on the head. Then a soldier also began beating me; with the butt of his rifle, he struck me on the head. After that, he fired his weapon in the air. I don’t understand Hebrew, but I gathered that he said the next rifle shot would hit me. In that moment, I thought I was going to die.”

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Ballal was dragged from an ambulance by the mob, in accordance with co-director Yuval Abraham.

Israeli troopers then detained him and two different Palestinians. Ballal mentioned he was saved blindfolded for greater than 20 hours, sitting on the ground beneath a blasting air conditioner.

The troopers kicked, punched or hit him with a stick every time they got here on their guard shifts, he claimed. Ballal says he heard them saying his identify and the phrase “Oscar”.

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The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have known as his allegations “entirely baseless”.

Doctors on the hospital mentioned Ballal had bruises and scratches throughout his physique, abrasions beneath his eye and a reduce on his chin however no inner accidents. Two different detained Palestinians had minor accidents.

His co-director Yuval Abraham has hit out on the Academy for failing to guard his colleague or launch an announcement abhoring the violence in opposition to him.

He posted on X: “While Hamdan was clearly targeted for making No Other Land (he recalled soldiers joking about the Oscar as they tortured him), he was also targeted for being Palestinian—like countless others every day who are disregarded.

“This, it seems, gave the Academy an excuse to remain silent when a filmmaker they honored, living under Israeli occupation, needed them the most.”

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An IDF spokesperson mentioned that they had reviewed the case and denied claims detainees had been crushed throughout the evening.

“IDF forces facilitated medical treatment for the detainees after the initial transfer of the suspects to the Israel police, and throughout the night, the detainees remained in a military detention facility while handcuffed in accordance with operational protocol,” they mentioned.

“Yesterday morning, the three detainees were transferred by the IDF to the Israel Police for questioning on suspicion of rock hurling, property damage, and endangering regional security.

“Following their questioning, the three were released by the police under conditions that include a ban on contact with other individuals involved in the incident and personal bail. During the incident, an Israeli civilian was injured and required medical treatment. The investigation is ongoing, and further arrests are expected.”