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My Oscar for 'No Other Land' Didn't Protect Me From Violence
April 25, 2025, 1:00 a.m. ET
By Hamdan Ballal
Mr. Ballal’s film “No Other Land” won the 2024 Academy Award for best documentary feature.
On March 2, I won an Academy Award for best documentary for a film I co-directed, “No Other Land.” It’s hard to put into words how that moment felt. It was one of the most incredible moments of my life.
Three weeks later, I was brutally attacked in my home and arrested. In an instant, it was as if the Oscars had never happened, as if the award didn’t mean anything.
(snip)
It is difficult for me to write about this moment now. After I was beaten, I was handcuffed, blindfolded and thrown into an army jeep. For hours I lay blindfolded on the ground on what I later learned was an army base, fearing that I would be held for a long time and beaten again and again. I was released a day later.
The attack on me and my community was brutal. It received large amounts of press coverage, but it is not unique in any way. Just a few days later, dozens of settlers, many of them masked, attacked Jinba, a village nearby. Five people were hospitalized, and more than 20 were arrested. Later the army raided the village and ransacked homes, the mosque and the school. In Susiya alone, from the beginning of the year to the March 24 attack, local activists recorded more than 45 incidents with settlers or soldiers. Across our region, Masafer Yatta, that number is much higher.
I want you to know our land does not know only violence. There are dozens of small, pastoral Palestinian villages that make up this region. The landscape here is beautiful and wide. Year after year, we plant the land and graze our sheep in the fields. Our mornings start with a cup of tea drunk at sunrise while the flocks enjoy the dew that is still fresh on the grass. The day continues with tending the land, caring for the animals, milking the sheep and goats and preparing the food and goods from our labor. The whole family and the whole village are involved in this daily work together, helping and supporting one another.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/25/opinion/no-other-land-director-attack.html?unlocked_article_code=1.CU8.pmT8.dYGogM3wuXXO&smid=url-share
By Hamdan Ballal
Mr. Ballal’s film “No Other Land” won the 2024 Academy Award for best documentary feature.
On March 2, I won an Academy Award for best documentary for a film I co-directed, “No Other Land.” It’s hard to put into words how that moment felt. It was one of the most incredible moments of my life.
Three weeks later, I was brutally attacked in my home and arrested. In an instant, it was as if the Oscars had never happened, as if the award didn’t mean anything.
(snip)
It is difficult for me to write about this moment now. After I was beaten, I was handcuffed, blindfolded and thrown into an army jeep. For hours I lay blindfolded on the ground on what I later learned was an army base, fearing that I would be held for a long time and beaten again and again. I was released a day later.
The attack on me and my community was brutal. It received large amounts of press coverage, but it is not unique in any way. Just a few days later, dozens of settlers, many of them masked, attacked Jinba, a village nearby. Five people were hospitalized, and more than 20 were arrested. Later the army raided the village and ransacked homes, the mosque and the school. In Susiya alone, from the beginning of the year to the March 24 attack, local activists recorded more than 45 incidents with settlers or soldiers. Across our region, Masafer Yatta, that number is much higher.
I want you to know our land does not know only violence. There are dozens of small, pastoral Palestinian villages that make up this region. The landscape here is beautiful and wide. Year after year, we plant the land and graze our sheep in the fields. Our mornings start with a cup of tea drunk at sunrise while the flocks enjoy the dew that is still fresh on the grass. The day continues with tending the land, caring for the animals, milking the sheep and goats and preparing the food and goods from our labor. The whole family and the whole village are involved in this daily work together, helping and supporting one another.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/25/opinion/no-other-land-director-attack.html?unlocked_article_code=1.CU8.pmT8.dYGogM3wuXXO&smid=url-share
on edit: forgot that images apart from graphs and maps aren't allowed in OPs. Oopsie!