Photograph by Al Seib/The Academy by way of Getty Pictures & Marvel Studios
One minute you are making your acceptance speech, the following you have been overwhelmed, kidnapped and tortured.
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It’s horrifying to confess, however the barbaric and homicidal remedy of Palestinians by Israel has been a fixture of the information for lengthy it’s virtually background noise. Certain, you are feeling unhappy if you learn concerning the IDF bombing a hospital, kids being executed on the street by Israeli snipers, or the continuing warfare crime of stopping assist reaching ravenous folks, however you possibly can solely really feel a lot despair.
However, typically, a narrative cuts via all that. Final night time the stunning information emerged that Oscar-winning filmmaker Hamden Ballal, whose movie No Different Land received the Finest Documentary Characteristic Movie earlier this month, had been attacked by Israeli settlers and has now disappeared.
The story emerged by way of No Different Land‘s co-director Yuval Abraham, who posted the next disturbing message:
A gaggle of settlers simply lynched Hamdan Ballal, co director of our movie no different land. They beat him and he has accidents in his head and abdomen, bleeding. Troopers invaded the ambulance he referred to as, and took him. No signal of him since.
— Yuval Abraham יובל אברהם (@yuval_abraham) March 24, 2025
No Different Land is about settlers illegally stealing houses and land from Palestinians within the occupied West Financial institution, with one of many movie’s different administrators Basel Adra believing the assault is retaliation for the Oscar win: “Palestinians within the village have been beneath bodily assault by settlers virtually day by day. The settlers’ violence is growing right here. Perhaps it’s a revenge for the film and the Oscar.”
The ambulance that collected Ballal was stopped and invaded by IDF troopers and he was apparently transported to a police station, the place he was tortured:
After the assault, Hamdan was handcuffed and blindfolded all night time in a military base whereas two troopers beat him up on the ground, his lawyer Leah Tsemel mentioned after talking with him simply now. He is nonetheless held within the Kiryat Arba police station.
— Yuval Abraham יובל אברהם (@yuval_abraham) March 25, 2025
The second Hamdan Ballal was attacked by Israeli goons within the occupied West Financial institution. After this the #IOF kidnapped him. His whereabouts are nonetheless unknown. pic.twitter.com/sFUUOpaZHJ
— Lance Aksamit (@AksamitLance) March 25, 2025
Regardless of the whole lot, you would possibly really feel optimistic that the leisure trade would step up and demand motion, or no less than solutions! In any case, simply weeks in the past Ballal was awarded the best honor in documentary filmmaking by a jury of trade titans. However, thus far, there’s been surprisingly little assist for him – save for one man with a proud historical past of sticking his head concerning the parapet.
MCU legend Mark Ruffalo, Bruce Banner himself, took to Instagram to say that “that is an assault on our beloved artwork from [sic] of movie making” and that “each movie maker and academy member ought to be appearing collectively in protest”:
Mark Ruffalo’s touch upon Hamdan Ballal getting attacked and kidnapped. pic.twitter.com/ZtZAWWV3P0
— Mohaned (@mohaned_mmfilm) March 25, 2025
Sigh, typically we want he really was the Hulk… Maybe it’s unfair that this single incident, which is in the end a drop of water within the huge ocean of fanatical genocide inflicted upon the Palestinian folks, ought to rouse such emotions. Hamden Ballal is in spite of everything one man, and since Israel broke the ceasefire they’ve killed 400 males, ladies, and kids with their indiscriminate bombing of Gaza.
Nonetheless, one thing is especially stomach-churning a few man starting the month making an Oscars acceptance speech and ending it being brutally attacked and tortured because the world seems to be away. We are able to solely pray that Ballal remains to be alive and that he’s freed quickly.
