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The Academy of Motion Pictures has released a statement to explain its silence after Israeli forces attacked and captured Hamdan Ballal on Monday. Ballal was released on Tuesday after being beaten and tortured.

Yuval Abraham, one of the filmmakers of the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, received the letter emailed to him and other members of the Academy by its CEO Bill Kramer and president Janet Yang on Wednesday.

The statement did not mention No Other Land or Ballal by name.

Abraham shared it on X writing, “After our criticism, the Academy’s leaders sent out this email to members explaining their silence on Hamdan’s assault: they need to respect ‘unique viewpoints’.”

Earlier, Abraham had said the Academy refused to speak up for Ballal “while he was beaten and tortured by Israeli soldiers and settlers.”

In its letter clarifying that it “condemns harming or suppressing artists for their work or their viewpoints,” the Academy held that it also represents close to 11,000 global members with unique viewpoints.

“We are living in a time of profound change, marked by conflict and uncertainty — across the globe, in the U.S. and within our own industry. Understandably, we are often asked to speak on behalf of the Academy in response to social, political and economic events. In these instances, it is important to note that the Academy represents close to 11,000 global members with many unique viewpoints.”

The letter stated that it is “united in a shared belief in the importance of storytelling, in the value of empathy, and in the role of film as a catalyst. “As an organisation, our focus continues to be celebrating the creative voices that make up the global film community and supporting your freedom to create, to challenge, and to imagine.”

The Academy also failed to mention any incident that prompted it to release the statement.

“We remain steadfast in this work, and we are grateful to walk alongside each of you in it,” its letter concluded.

Ballal was released by Israeli forces after Abraham wrote on X informed his followers on X that he had gone missing following an attack. “A group of settlers just lynched Hamdan Ballal, co-director of our film No Other Land,” Abraham said.

“They beat him and he has injuries in his head and stomach, bleeding. Soldiers invaded the ambulance he called, and took him. No sign of him since.”

According to ABC News, Ballal was detained along with several others on suspicion of throwing stones and damaging property, allegations which he denies. “I didn’t throw stones, I didn’t do any problems with the settlers,” he told ABC. “The settlers came attacking me and beating me. That’s it.”

Abraham, while sharing how the Academy allegedly refused to put out a statement in support of Ballal when he was captured, said, “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.”

No Other Land, which won the best documentary Oscar earlier this month and was made by a Palestinian-Israeli collective including Abraham, Ballal, Basel Adra and Rachel Szor, follows a Palestinian family living in the West Bank as their home gets destroyed by the Israeli government and they face displacement.