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Oscar-winning Palestinian director ‘attacked by Jewish settlers and detained’

Oscar-Winning Palestinian Director ‘Attacked By Jewish Settlers And Detained’
From left, Basel Adra, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal and Yuval Abraham, winners of the award for best documentary feature film for No Other Land, in the press room at the Oscars in March
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By Associated Press Reporter

Israeli settlers beat up one of the Palestinian co-directors of the Oscar-winning film No Other Land in the occupied West Bank on Monday, and he was then detained by the Israeli military, activists on the scene have said.

Dozens of settlers attacked the Palestinian village of Susiya in the Masafer Yatta area, destroying property, said the activist group Centre for Jewish Nonviolence.

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They attacked Hamdan Ballal, one of the documentary’s co-directors, leaving his head bleeding, the activists said.


Basel Adra, from left, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal, and Yuval Abraham, winners of the award for best documentary feature film for No Other Land, pose in the press room at the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles
From left, Basel Adra, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal and Yuval Abraham, winners of the award for best documentary feature film for No Other Land, at the Oscars in Los Angeles (Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

As he was being treated in an ambulance, soldiers detained him and a second Palestinian man, the group said.

It said his whereabouts were now unknown.

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The Israeli military said it was looking into the episode but did not immediately comment.

No Other Land, which won the Oscar this year for best documentary, chronicles the struggle by residents of Masafer Yatta to stop the Israeli military from demolishing their villages.


Salem Adra, left, brother of Palestinian activist Basel Adra, who won best documentary feature at the Oscars for No Other Land talks with a local Palestinian shepherd as they stand near an Israeli settlers’ outpost at the West Bank village of Tuwani
Salem Adra, left, brother of Palestinian activist Basel Adra, who won best documentary feature at the Oscars for No Other Land, talks with a local Palestinian shepherd as they stand near an Israeli settlers’ outpost at the West Bank village of Tuwani (Leo Correa/AP)

It has two Palestinian co-directors, Ballal and Basel Adra, both residents of Masafar Yatta, and two Israeli directors, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor.

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