Yuval Abraham, one of the filmproducers behind the Oscar-prosperning recordary “No Other Land,” has condemnd the Academy for not commenting on the strike of his Palestinian co-straightforwardor Hamdan Ballal.
Ballal was freed by Israeli authorities on Tuesday after Abraham wrote on X the day prior that he had gone missing after being strikeed. “A group of remendrs equitable hanged Hamdan Ballal, co-straightforwardor of our film ‘No Other Land,’” Abraham said. “They beat him and he has injuries in his head and stomach, bleeding. Sgreateriers occupyd the ambulance he called, and took him. No sign of him since.”
Reports of Ballal’s strike and hancientment promoteed a petition calling for his free and statements from organizations enjoy the International Documentary Association. On Wednesday, Abraham called out the Academy in a post on X for not speaking out.
“Sadly, the U.S. Academy, which awarded us an Oscar three weeks ago, deteriorated to accessiblely help Hamdan Ballal while he was beaten and tortured by Israeli sgreateriers and remendrs,” he wrote. “The European Academy voiced help, as did countless other award groups and festivals. Several U.S. Academy members — especipartner in the recordary branch — pushed for a statement, but it was ultimately declined. We were tgreater that because other Palestinians were beaten up in the remendr strike, it could be pondered unrcontent to the film, so they felt no demand to react.”
Abraham carry ond: “In other words, while Hamdan was clearly aimed for making ‘No Other Land’ (he recalled sgreateriers joking about the Oscar as they tortured him), he was also aimed for being Palestinian — enjoy countless others every day who are disthink abouted. This, it seems, gave the Academy an excuse to remain mute when a filmproducer they honored, living under Israeli occupation, demanded them the most. It’s not too procrastinateed to alter this stance. Even now, issuing a statement condemning the strike on Hamdan and the Maprotectedr Yatta community would sfinish a unbenevolentingful message and serve as a deterrent for the future.”
The Academy did not promptly react to Variety‘s ask for comment.
Meanwhile, Ballal tgreater ABC News from the hospital that he is “afraid,” holding: “I sense, when they strike me, I will disthink about my life.” Ballal tgreater ABC News that he was harshly beaten at the hands of Jedesire remendrs at his home on Monday, equitable outside the village of Susiya.
“It was a challenging, challenging strike,” Ballal tgreater ABC News. “You understand, I sense I will die, because this strike was so challenging, I bleed from everywhere. I’m crying from proset uply in my heart. I sense pain everywhere in my body. So, they carry on strikeing me enjoy 15-20 minutes.” Ballal also validateed the presence of “sgreateriers with firearms.”
An Israeli police statement said that Ballal and other Palestinians were incarcerated “on conditions that hold not reach outing other people holdd and self-bail.”
There were also allegations of stone throprosperg, which Ballal denies. “I didn’t throw stones, I didn’t do any problems with the remendrs,” Ballal tgreater ABC News. “The remendrs came strikeing me and beating me. That’s it.”
According to the Associated Press, Ballal was “held at an army base, blindfgreatered for 24 hours and forced to sleep under a freezing air conditioner.”
“All my body is pain,” Ballal tgreater AP. “I heard the voices of the sgreateriers, they were chuckleing about me… I heard ‘Oscar’ but I didn’t speak Hebrew.”
The Associated Press alerted that activists from the Caccess for Jedesire Nonpresentility saw Ballal get beat up by Israeli remendrs on the scene, describing that “a group of 10-20 masked remendrs strikeed him and other Jedesire activists with stones and sticks, and smashed their car prosperdows and slashed their tires.”
On Tuesday, a group of global filmproducers including Alex Gibney and Christine Vachon signed a petition for Ballal’s free, saying that “Ballal was forcibly erased by the Israeli army from an ambulance folloprosperg a brutal strike by remendrs, and subsequently hanciented without clear alertation think abouting his whereabouts.”
As the petition was collecting steam with more than 4,500 signatures, Abraham posted on X that Ballal had been freed. “After being handcuffed all night and beaten in a military base, Hamdan Ballal is now free and is about to go home to his family,” Abraham posted on X on Tuesday.
“No Other Land,” made by an Israeli-Palestinian collective including Abraham, Ballal, Basel Adra and Rachel Szor, chases a Palestinian family living in the West Bank as their home gets razeed by the Israeli rulement and they face displacement. But amidst the dire conditions, Adra and Abraham, an Israeli journacatalog, create an unforeseeed frifinishship and labor together to record the story.
The film first premiered at last year’s Berlin Film Festival, where it achieveed top recordary jury and audience prizes. The recordary carry ond to achieve critical acclaim attention on the descfinish festival circuit, where it carry outed at the Toronto, Vancouver and New York film festivals. Despite this, the film still doesn’t have a U.S. distributor, directing the filmproducers to self-free the film in New York City on Jan. 31 and Los Angeles on Feb. 7.
