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Key Points
- Oscar-winning filmmaker Hamdan Ballal was assaulted by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.
- Ballal’s lawyer says he was detained and bilndfolded without charge overnight.
- Jewish activists say Israeli settlers attacked them in the same village.
“It’s crazy, you can imagine your family, your kids inside the home and you need to protect them,” he said.
“This is not the first time that the settlers attacked our gathering, but in the recent period the attacks have increased,” Nawajaa said, adding that the settlers had stolen around 10 sheep from the village during the attack.
Hamdan Ballal (left) won an Oscar for best documentary feature film for No Other Land. Source: AFP / Monica Schipper
Monday’s incident was the latest in which Israeli settlers have been accused of raiding Palestinian or Bedouin villages and encampments in the West Bank, sometimes to steal livestock.
Asked for an update on Ballal’s condition and status on Tuesday, the Israeli police sent the statement first issued by the army the previous night.
Basel Adra, one of the film’s other co-directors, said he believed the settlers had taken the army to the family house as revenge for the film’s depiction of the Masafer Yatta area near where Monday’s incident occurred.
