It’s horrifying to it, but the barbaric and homicidal treatment of Palestinians by Israel has been a fixture of the news for long it’s almost background noise. Sure, you feel sad when you read about the IDF bombing a hospital, children being executed in the street by Israeli snipers, or the ongoing war crime of preventing aid reaching starving people, but you can only feel so much despair.

But, sometimes, a story cuts through all that. Last night the shocking news emerged that Oscar-winning filmmaker Hamden Ballal, whose film No Other Land won the Best Documentary Feature Film earlier this month, had been attacked by Israeli settlers and has now disappeared.

The story emerged via No Other Land‘s co-director Yuval Abraham, who posted the following disturbing message:

A group of settlers just lynched Hamdan Ballal, co director of our film no other land. 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.

— Yuval Abraham יובל אברהם (@yuval_abraham) March 24, 2025

No Other Land is about settlers illegally stealing homes and land from Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, with one of the film’s other directors Basel Adra believing the attack is retaliation for the Oscar win: “Palestinians in the village have been under physical attack by settlers almost daily. The settlers’ violence is increasing here. Maybe it’s a revenge for the movie and the Oscar.”

The ambulance that collected Ballal was stopped and invaded by IDF soldiers and he was apparently transported to a police station, where he was tortured:

After the assault, Hamdan was handcuffed and blindfolded all night in an army base while two soldiers beat him up on the floor, his lawyer Leah Tsemel said after speaking with him just now. He's still held in the Kiryat Arba police station.

— Yuval Abraham יובל אברהם (@yuval_abraham) March 25, 2025

The moment Hamdan Ballal was attacked by Israeli goons in the occupied West Bank. After this the #IOF abducted him. His whereabouts are still unknown. pic.twitter.com/sFUUOpaZHJ

— Lance Aksamit (@AksamitLance) March 25, 2025

Despite everything, you might feel optimistic that the entertainment industry would step up and demand action, or at least answers! After all, just weeks ago Ballal was awarded the highest honor in documentary filmmaking by a jury of industry titans. But, so far, there’s been surprisingly little for him – save for one man with a proud history of sticking his head about the parapet.

MCU legend Mark Ruffalo, Bruce Banner himself, took to Instagram to say that “this is an attack on our beloved art from [sic] of film making” and that “every film maker and academy member should be acting together in protest”:

Mark Ruffalo's comment on Hamdan Ballal getting attacked and abducted. pic.twitter.com/ZtZAWWV3P0

— Mohaned (@mohaned_mmfilm) March 25, 2025

Sigh, sometimes we wish he actually was the Hulk… Perhaps it’s unfair that this single incident, which is ultimately a drop of water in the vast ocean of fanatical genocide inflicted upon the Palestinian people, should rouse such feelings. Hamden Ballal is after all one man, and since Israel broke the ceasefire they’ve killed 400 men, women, and children with their indiscriminate bombing of Gaza.

However, something is particularly stomach-churning about a man beginning the month making an Oscars acceptance speech and ending it being brutally attacked and tortured as the world looks away. We can only pray that Ballal is still alive and that he’s freed soon.

Palestinian director Hamdan Ballal — one of four filmmakers who helmed the Oscar-winning documentary, No Other Land — has been attacked and arrested by of the Israeli army. 

According to five Jewish American activists who witnessed the incident, Ballal was surrounded and attacked by a masked and armed group of 15 Israeli settlers in his home in the Masafer Yatta area south of Hebron. Activist groups reached out to media outlets to describe the scene, which included stones being thrown, the destruction of a water tank near Ballal’s home, and the slashing of his car tyres and shattering of his windscreen.

Rolling Stone reports that Ballal’s home security cameras were stolen, and that some attackers carried batons, knives, and at least one assault rifle. The Israeli soldiers reportedly ambushed the ambulance Ballal had called in the midst of the attack, before chasing him into his home and turning him over to the military. Speaking to Rolling Stone, an activist group named the Center for Jewish Nonviolence said Ballal is currently being held at a police station, though details about his condition remain unclear.

The attack took place in an area south of West Bank, the very same location that was documented in No Other Land, a collaborative documentary between Israeli and Palestinian directors that covered the destruction of villages in the West Bank amid the ongoing conflict and war in Gaza. Speaking of the attack, co-director Yuval Abraham wrote on X that Israeli army “beat [Ballal] and he has injuries in his head and stomach, bleeding,” adding that there has been “no sign of him since” the attack. 

A group of settlers just lynched Hamdan Ballal, co director of our film no other land. 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.

— Yuval Abraham יובל אברהם (@yuval_abraham) March 24, 2025

Meanwhile, Basel Adra — one of the other co-directors of the film, which took home the Academy’s top prize in the documentary category earlier this year — said the attack on Ballal may have been fuelled by the success of No Other Land. “The settlers’ violence is increasing here,” he told The Guardian, “maybe it’s a revenge for the movie and the Oscar,” Adra has himself been subject to similar incidents, having been surrounded and attacked by masked Israeli settlers last February. 

The Oscar win for No Other Land was divisive due to political sensitivities both in the region it documented and abroad. Viewers of the Academy Awards promptly noted the seeming unenthusiasm of the crowd when the movie was named Best Documentary, while, weeks later, the film became a source of controversy in the city of Miami Beach, Florida. Steven Meiner, the mayor of Miami Beach, attempted to terminate the lease of local theater O Cinema, in response to its decision to show No Other Land with screenings throughout March. 

Meiner wrote in a newsletter that the film is a “false one-sided propaganda attack on the Jewish people that is not consistent with the values of our City.” Ballal took to the Oscars stage to accept the trophy for No Other Land, while his co-director Abraham used the moment to speak on the impact of American foreign policy on the ongoing conflict in Gaza. As for Ballal’s current plight, the Israel Defense Forces told The Guardian it is looking into the incident of his attack and arrest.

Last night, No Other Land rightly scooped up an Oscar for Best Documentary. The movie is an Israeli/Palestinian collaboration chronicling Israel’s destruction of Masafer Yatta, the Palestinian director Basel Adra’s hometown. The documentary sees Adra befriend Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham, as they seek to tell their story.

The documentary received huge buzz on the festival circuit and – despite there being no plans for a domestic release – has attracted a lot of attention. On picking up the prize, Abraham explained that “we made this film as Palestinians and Israelis because, together, our voices are stronger.”

did Gal Gadot back out of presenting best documentary because of No Other Land LMFAOOOO

— Clarke (@pleasuresystems) March 3, 2025

Given that this is a hot-button topic, many have been left infuriated that a documentary they perceive as critical of Israel won an Oscar. But does that extend to the Oscar presenters? There’s a theory floating around on social media that Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot was supposed to present the Best Documentary award, but pulled out upon realizing she might have to hand an Oscar to a Palestinian movie.

On the night, Gadot (and her Snow White co-star Rachel Zegler) presented the Best Visual Effects award, while Best Documentary was presented by Selena Gomez and Samuel L. Jackson.

no other land winning and gal gadot mysteriously absent from presenting the award like she was supposed to……

— cary (@brokebackstan) March 3, 2025

On a surface level, the theory makes some sense. Gadot is not just Israeli, but in 2004, she was literally crowned “Miss Israel.” She went on to serve in the IDF for two years and apparently considers it “her duty” as a celebrity to speak out in of Israel. So, would it really be plausible for Gadot to learn the winner of her category and quietly request to present something else? As one commenter put it:

Gal Gadot refusing to present the best documentary Oscar for No Other Land is the perfect embodiment of Israel. They refuse to acknowledge the truth of their genocidal actions & when confronted, run away like the chicken ****s they are.”

The truth

At least as far as the public is told, the Oscar presenters have no idea what’s inside the envelope they’re holding, so if Gadot was to present this category, she wouldn’t know that No Other Land would be the winner. Though this something of a moot point, as it appears Gadot was never confirmed to be presenting the award for Best Documentary in the first place. The story appears to have started as wishful “wouldn’t it be funny if” thinking and, through a game of internet telephone, became reality for many people.

This hasn’t stopped many outlets from reporting the story as fact, with NME claiming that she “switched categories for an unknown reason.” To be fair, we have no insight into the behind-the-scenes machinations at the awards, so it’s not impossible that this is true. But, based on everything else I’ve seen, it appears to be *drum roll* fake news.

As it stands, we don’t even know what Gadot’s reaction was to No Other Land winning an Oscar, as the cameras didn’t pan to her when the award was announced. Maybe she was stone-faced and livid, maybe she was politely applauding – we’ll just have to wait for someone who was actually there to confirm one way or the other.