One of many co-directors behind the Academy Award-winning Greatest Documentary movie No Different Land has been assaulted in his house in Masafer Yatta by Israeli settlers and is at present being detained by the Israeli navy for unknown causes. In keeping with The Related Press, filmmaker Hamdan Ballal was overwhelmed up by Israeli settlers. The report mentioned {that a} group of 10-20 masked settlers attacked him and different Jewish activists with stones and sticks, smashing their automobile home windows and slashing their tires.
The Academy Award-winning documentarian was left together with his head bleeding. Whereas being handled in an ambulance, troopers detained Ballal and a second Palestinian man. The Israeli navy mentioned it was wanting into the incident however didn’t instantly remark to The Related Press. The activist group Heart for Jewish Nonviolence mentioned dozens of settlers attacked the Palestinian village of Susiya within the Masafer Yatta space, destroying property. Josh Kimelman, a 28-year-old eyewitness on the scene, mentioned:
“We don’t know the place Hamdan is as a result of he was taken away in a blindfold.”
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The unimaginable documentary simply earned an Oscar nomination and will seemingly win, though American distributors are afraid of it.
No Different Land is a 2024 documentary movie that Hamdan Ballal made alongside Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, and Rachel Szor of their directorial debut. The movie chronicles the battle by residents of Masafer Yatta, the identical space the place Ballal was attacked, to cease the Israeli navy from demolishing their villages through the Palestinian-Israeli battle. The movie is a collaboration between Palestinian and Israeli filmmakers, with Palestinian filmmakers Ballal and Basel Adra residing in Masafer Yatta, whereas Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor are of Israeli descent.
The Pushback to ‘No Different Land’
Regardless of a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and receiving quite a few awards, together with profitable Greatest Documentary Movie on the 97th Academy Awards, No Different Land has confronted a substantial amount of pushback. The movie has nonetheless been unable to safe a wide-release distribution deal, even following its awards win. Two weeks after No Different Land gained the Oscar, Miami Seaside mayor Steven Meiner launched a decision to revoke the lease of a nonprofit artwork home cinema, O Cinema, from a city-owned property for screening the movie. The mayor has since backed off the proposal to evict, however the concept it was launched within the first place actually speaks to a troubling matter.
The truth that Hamdan Ballal is being detained with out query is unfortunately similar to a case occurring in the US proper now. On Mar. 8, 2025, Columbia College pupil activist and authorized U.S. resident Mahmoud Khalil was detained by immigration officers for serving as a spokesperson and negotiator throughout pro-Palestinian demonstrations who opposed Israel’s navy marketing campaign in Gaza. Following a scarcity of proof for the Trump administration’s claims that Khalil was a Hamas sympathizer, they’re now shifting their claims that he lied on his Inexperienced Card utility.
The Trump administration is searching for to deport Khalil underneath a not often used statute within the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) written through the McCarthyism sweeping the nation on the time. It permits for eradicating non-citizens who pose “probably critical adversarial international coverage penalties for the US.” It’s a unhappy time when two separate governments are detaining each Mahmoud Khalil and Hamdan Ballal, for seemingly their solely crime is talking out towards harmless lives being killed, which is being twisted into being one thing extra sinister.
Supply: The Related Press
No Different Land
5
/5
- Launch Date
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January 31, 2025
- Runtime
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96 Minutes
