The Palestinian director winning Oscarscar, Hamdan Ballal No other landwho won the best documentary at the prestigious awards ceremony earlier this month.
« That is why they are attacking me, » he said in a telephone interview with CBC News, a day after he was released from an Israeli settlement of Qiryat Arba, near Hebron.
« They punish me because I take this message (to the outside world), » he said from his house in Masafer Yatta, a cluster of Palestinian villages on the hills of southern Hebron.
The film, which Ballal co-directed with Palestinian Basel’s colleagues Adra and the Israeli Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, documents the Palestinians of Masafer Yatta who live under occupation and struggling to cling to their land.
Israel captured Oriental Jerusalem and the West Bank of Jordan in 1967. Today there are about 500,000 Jewish settlers living in the West Bank alone, although they are considered illegal by virtue of international law For much of the world.
About three million Palestinians live in West Bank and tensions have increased during the war in Gaza.
Ballal says he was detained after being badly hit by a village who identified as Shem Tov Luski and two soldiers after the Israeli settlers who besieged Palestinian villagers had been filmed on Monday.
He says that his ordeal began at 6 pm, when a companion resident in his hometown of Susiya called to alert him to the presence of the Israelis.
« When I arrived, the settlers (launched) stones and destroyed the water tank, the cars there, » he said.
When Ballal left to check his own family, he says he was followed by Luski and the two soldiers, all armed, who continued to beat -even when he had fallen to the ground.
He says his medical care applications were ignored and that he was finally blinded and taken to a place where he was retained during the night.
The director says he feared he would be murdered
Susiya’s head of Local Council says the problem began when the settlers attacked a meeting to Iftar, which marks the end of the fast fast during Ramadan.
Activists of a group called Non -Violence Center -Jewish -violence called by the villagers on the scene said they were also attacked by settlers, showing video at various news agencies.
Luski, the village identified by Ballal, lives in a nearby settlement place called Ancient Susiya. The Israeli Human Rights Group B’tselem documented it by besieging Ballal and other Palestinians last summer.
Ballal says he has been threatened by Luski and other settlers earlier, but this time he was afraid to be really killed.
« After Oscar, he worsened, » he said.
In response to a CBC News consultation, Israel’s Defense forces (IDF) said that their soldiers had transferred three Palestinian « detainees » to police « to interrogate the suspicion of rock launch, property damage and jeopardizing regional security. »
The statement also called claims that they had been struck overnight in an IDF detention installation « completely baseless », saying that the IDFs forced « the medical treatment provided for those detained after their transfer to the Israeli police.
« Why did we make this movie »
The Palestinians living in the occupied territories have faced increasing levels of violence by the hard -line Jewish settlers in recent years, according to human rights groups, especially those living in « advanced » related to larger settlement blocks.
Palestinians, rights organizations, and activist groups sending monitors to the West Bank say that the Israeli army does not regularly prevent violent and intimidating behavior by the settlers.
The war in Gaza has led to an increase in violence in the West Bank, with the Israeli military conducting military operations that have killed hundreds of Palestinians and displaced tens of thousands. There has been an increase in the violence of settlers, as well as the Palestinian attacks on the Israelis.
Asked if he thinks his film could change things, Ballal said he is waiting.
« So far nothing has changed on the ground, » he said. « But that’s why we made this movie. »
The current23:26Oscar Win for cinema about Israel’s destruction of a West Bank community
No other field won the Oscar for the best documentary function on Sunday. It tells the story of a Palestinian community displaced by Israel, to give way to a military scope in the West Bank. Two of his directors, Palestinian Basel Adra and Israeli Yuval Abraham, spoke to Matt Galloway in December about his struggle to tell this story in Israel and beyond.
Leave a Reply