Palestinian Oscar Winner Recounts Beating and Detention

HEBRON, West Financial institution — Just a few weeks in the past, Hamdan Ballal stood on a stage in Los Angeles accepting an Oscar for the movie “No Different Land,” a documentary depicting his West Financial institution village’s battle towards Israel’s occupation.

On Tuesday, Ballal — his face bruised and garments nonetheless noticed with blood — recounted to The Related Press how he was closely crushed by an Israeli settler and troopers the evening earlier than. The settler, he mentioned, kicked his head “like a soccer” throughout a settler assault on his village.

The troopers then detained him and two different Palestinians. Ballal mentioned he was stored 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 mentioned. Ballal doesn’t communicate Hebrew, however he mentioned he heard them saying his title and the phrase “Oscar.”

“I spotted they have been attacking me particularly,” he mentioned in an interview at a West Financial institution hospital after his launch Tuesday. “Once they say ‘Oscar’, you perceive. Once they say your title, you perceive.”

The Israeli navy didn’t instantly reply to the claims that Ballal was crushed by troopers. The settler whom Ballal recognized as his attacker, Shem Tov Luski — who has threatened Ballal prior to now — denied he or the troopers beat him and informed the AP that he and different Palestinians within the village had thrown stones at his automotive. He mentioned he did not know Ballal was an Oscar winner.

The Israeli navy mentioned Monday it had detained three Palestinians suspected of hurling rocks in addition to one Israeli civilian, who was quickly launched. Ballal denied throwing stones.

‘I’m dying!’

The assault passed off Monday evening within the southern West Financial institution village of Susiya. It’s a part of the Masafer Yatta area featured in “No Different Land,” which depicts the Palestinian residents’ makes an attempt to fend off settler assaults and the navy’s plans to demolish their houses.

At round sundown, as residents have been ending their daylong Ramadan quick, roughly two dozen Jewish settlers together with police entered the village, throwing stones at homes and breaking property, witnesses say. Round 30 troopers arrived quickly after. Jewish Israelis in an activist group supporting the villagers confirmed video of themselves additionally being attacked, with settlers hitting their automotive with sticks and stones.

Ballal mentioned he filmed among the injury brought on by the settlers. Then he went to his own residence and locked it, together with his spouse and three younger kids inside.

“I informed myself if they’ll assault me, in the event that they kill me, I’ll defend my household,” he mentioned.

Ballal mentioned Luski approached with two troopers. He mentioned Luski hit him on the top, knocked him to the bottom and stored kicking and punching him within the head. On the identical time, one soldier hit him on the legs together with his gun butt, whereas the opposite pointed his weapon at him, he mentioned.

Lamia Ballal, the director’s spouse, mentioned she was huddling inside with their kids and heard him screaming, “I’m dying!”

Luski informed the AP that he and different settlers had come to the village to assist a fellow settler who mentioned he was being attacked by Palestinian stone-throwers. He mentioned dozens of masked Palestinians attacked his automotive with stones, together with Ballal. “He broke my window, threw a stone at my chest,” he mentioned.

He mentioned when troopers arrived, he led them to Ballal’s home to establish him as one of many attackers however denied that he hit him or that settlers attacked any property within the village. Luski mentioned he had footage of the evening’s occasions however when requested to point out it to the AP, he responded with a string of expletives.

On Tuesday, a small bloodstain could possibly be seen outdoors Ballal’s house, and the household automotive’s home windows have been shattered. Neighbors pointed to a close-by water tank with a gap within the facet that they mentioned had been punched by the settlers.

Detention

Lea Tsemel, the lawyer representing Ballal and the 2 different Palestinians detained with him, mentioned they have been taken to a military base, the place they solely acquired minimal care for his or her accidents from the assault. She mentioned they’d no entry to them for a number of hours after their arrest.

Ballal mentioned he had no concept the place he was being held, might see nothing and was “freezing” from the hours spent blindfolded beneath the air conditioner.

The three have been transferred to an Israeli police station on the West Financial institution settlement of Kiryat Arba and have been launched Tuesday afternoon.

“All my physique is ache,” he informed the AP instantly after his launch as he walked, limping, towards a hospital within the close by Palestinian metropolis of Hebron.

Medical doctors on the hospital mentioned Ballal had bruises and scratches throughout his physique, abrasions beneath his eye and a minimize on his chin however no inner accidents. The 2 different detained Palestinians additionally had minor accidents.

Confrontations with settlers

In a extensively circulated video from August, Luski and a number of different masked settlers are seen arguing with Ballal. Luski shouts profanity at him and tries to impress him right into a struggle.

“That is my land, I used to be given it by God,” Luski says. “Subsequent time it gained’t be good.” He taunts Ballal with the prospect of being despatched to Sde Teiman, a infamous navy jail holding Palestinians detained from Gaza, the place 5 troopers have been charged with raping a detainee with a knife.

“Rape for the next trigger,” he says in Hebrew, then blows Ballal a kiss.

The movie “No Different Land,” a joint Israeli-Palestinian manufacturing, chronicles the state of affairs in Masafer Yatta, which the Israeli navy designated as a live-fire coaching zone within the Eighties and ordered the expulsion of the residents, principally Arab Bedouin. Round 1,000 residents have largely remained in place, however troopers frequently are available to demolish houses, tents, water tanks and olive orchards.

Settlers have additionally arrange outposts across the space and at instances destroy Palestinian property. Palestinians and rights teams say Israeli forces often flip a blind eye or intervene on behalf of the settlers.

The movie has drawn ire in Israel and overseas, as when Miami Seaside proposed ending the lease of a movie show that screened it.

Basel Adra, one other of the movie’s co-directors and a distinguished Palestinian activist within the space, mentioned there’s been an enormous upswing in assaults by settlers and Israeli forces because the Oscar win.

“We’re dwelling in darkish days right here, in Gaza, and all the West Financial institution,” he mentioned. “No person’s stopping this.”

Israel captured the West Financial institution within the 1967 Mideast battle, together with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. The Palestinians need all three for his or her future state.

Israel has constructed nicely over 100 settlements, house to over 500,000 settlers who’ve Israeli citizenship. Many of the worldwide group considers the settlements unlawful.