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Israeli director Yuval Abraham, one of the filmmakers behind the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, said that the US Academy refused to publicly support Hamdan Ballal, the documentary’s Palestinian director who was attacked and arrested by Israeli forces.

“Sadly, the US Academy, which awarded us an Oscar three weeks ago, declined to publically support Hamdan Ballal while he was beaten and tortured by Israeli soldiers and settlers,” Abraham wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

He stated that the European Academy and countless other award groups and festivals voiced their support. However, the US Academy did not issue a statement despite being pushed by several members, especially from the documentary branch.

“We were told that because other Palestinians were beaten up in the settler attack, it could be considered unrelated to the film, so they felt no need to respond.

“In other words, while Hamdan was clearly targeted for making No Other Land (he recalled soldiers joking about the Oscar as they tortured him), he was also targeted for being Palestinian — like countless others every day who are disregarded.”

Abraham claimed this gave the Academy an “excuse to remain silent when a filmmaker they honoured, living under Israeli occupation, needed them the most.”

The director stated that it was not too late to change this stance, and the Academy issuing a statement condemning the attack on Hamdan and the Masafer Yatta community would “send a meaningful message and serve as a deterrent for the future.”

Basel Adra, the other Palestinian director behind the documentary, reshared Abraham’s tweet and said, “They refused to support Hamdan just because he is Palestinian. Another sign that our lives don’t matter.”

Ballal, one of the co-directors of No Other Land, which won Best Documentary at the Oscars earlier this month, was attacked on Monday night by a group of Israeli settlers in the West Bank, beaten and then pulled from his ambulance and arrested by members of Israeli forces.

‘Last moments of my life’

Israeli police released Ballal on Tuesday after detaining him the day before, AFP reported. Ballal told the publication that he was attacked by Israeli settlers for winning the prestigious award, calling the “brutality” life-threatening.

Ballal said he had been attacked by settlers while soldiers pointed their weapons at him.

“I felt that these were the last moments of my life, that I would lose it due to the severity of the beating,” he told AFP in a video interview.

“My head was trapped between the settler’s foot, the door and the wall, as if it were a football.”

The “brutality” of the attack, he said, “made me feel it was because I won the Oscar”.

During his detention at an Israeli military centre, Ballal noticed soldiers mentioning his name alongside the word “Oscar” during shift changes.

“While I couldn’t understand everything they said, I clearly recognised my name and the word ‘Oscar’, as those words don’t change in Hebrew,” he said.

Additional input via AFP