The first 27 pages, the age is listed as 0
Hamdan Ballal with Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor
The ongoing horror in Palestine continues: documentary filmmaker Hamdan Ballal is lynched and courageous journalist Hossam Shabat is killed, just two of the human stories of the unfolding ethnic cleansing taking place across Palestine.
Documentary director, Hamdan Ballal who made No Other Land which won an Oscar for best documentary with Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor was yesterday beaten and injured in the Palestinian village of Susya in Hebron. Dozens of Israeli settlers raided houses in the village, threw stones and smashed windows and vehicles, and beat residents and solidarity activists. Ballal was seized by the IDF from the ambulance that had come to collect him.
After the assault, Hamdan was handcuffed and blindfolded all night in an army base while two soldiers beat him up on the floor. He was held in the Kiryat Arba police station. Reports at lunchtime today (25/03/2025) say he’s free and is about to go home to his family. Lea Tsemel, the attorney for Ballal, made the announcement. It is unclear when Ballal will be released.
Hamdan Ballal, the Oscar-winning Palestinian co-director of “No Other Land,” was brutally attacked by Israeli settlers in the West Bank on Monday before he was arrested by soldiers.
Colleague @basel_adra describes the violent scene. pic.twitter.com/UUozP3rwMN
— Democracy Now! (@democracynow) March 25, 2025
No Other Land, a film about Israeli displacement of a Palestinian community, won the documentary feature film Oscar at the beginning of this month. Here’s their acceptance speech:
“No Other Land” director Basel Adra: “We call on the world to take serious actions to stop the injustice and to stop the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people.” | #Oscars pic.twitter.com/NzoqLKiBSJ
— Variety (@Variety) March 3, 2025
The documentary, which has Palestinian and Israeli directors, focuses on the steady forced displacement of Palestinians from their homes in Masafer Yatta, a region in the occupied West Bank targeted by Israeli forces. Despite the critical acclaim, the film could not find distribution in the US and was self-distributed instead.
Hamdan Ballal
Ballal’s attack, described as a lynching, might well have resulted in another ‘disappearance’ if there had not been such an immediate outcry. He might easily have gone the way of Hossam Shabat, another journalist killed by Israeli forces this week.
Hossam’s team released this, his final message:
“If you’re reading this, it means I have been killed—most likely targeted—by the Israeli occupation forces. When this all began, I was only 21 years old—a college student with dreams like anyone else. For past 18 months, I have dedicated every moment of my life to my people. I documented the horrors in northern Gaza minute by minute, determined to show the world the truth they tried to bury. I slept on pavements, in schools, in tents—anywhere I could. Each day was a battle for survival. I endured hunger for months, yet I never left my people’s side. By God, I fulfilled my duty as a journalist. I risked everything to report the truth, and now, I am finally at rest—something I haven’t known in the past 18 months . I did all this because I believe in the Palestinian cause. I believe this land is ours, and it has been the highest honor of my life to die defending it and serving its people. I ask you now: do not stop speaking about Gaza. Do not let the world look away. Keep fighting, keep telling our stories—until Palestine is free.” — For the last time, Hossam Shabat, from northern Gaza.
Israel has killed over 170 journalists in just 17 months.
The political analyst Ommar Baddar said of the assault on Ballal: “He was on stage at the Oscars in Los Angeles just 3 weeks ago. Now he’s been brutalized and disappeared by Israeli settlers. It’s like these fanatics & their genocidal government are making a point that they can get away with absolutely anything.”
Jeet Heer, a writer at The Nation wrote: “The settlers lynched an Oscar-winning director because they know they can. The Israel government isn’t going to condemn this, nor the American government, nor most in congress (including most Dems), nor most journalists and Hollywood types who love bleating about authoritarianism and freedom. The settlers have impunity and know it.”
Heer and Baddar are right, they act with complete impunity, knowing that any international force with enough authority has sided with Netanyahu, and so the horror continues. Gaza Notifications, which has been valiantly trying to record and disseminate the situation on the ground have reported:
“Mass Displacement and Field Executions in Gaza Widespread evacuation of Palestinian families is underway amid heavy gunfire in Tel Al-Sultan, Rafah southern Gaza , and Beit Hanoun northern Gaza, as the Israeli army launches a ground offensive. Dozens of families remain trapped in Rafah, where reports indicate that the Israeli army has carried out field executions, leaving bodies scattered in streets and alleyways. Since dawn today, 42 victims have been confirmed dead, according to Palestinian hospitals.”
These actions, and the settler attacks, prove this has nothing to do with Hamas. This is, and always has been, about eradicating the Palestinian people.
Yesterday Sharif Kouddous (a journalist and editor at Drop Site and Democracy Now) reported that “The health ministry has released a 1,516–page document listing the names of over 50,000 Palestinians confirmed killed in Gaza since Oct 7, 2023. There are a total of 474 pages listing 15,600+ children’s names. The first 27 pages the age is listed as 0 — children under 1 year old.”
The scale of horror is infathomable, but I would urge everybody, as Hossam Shabat has said:
“Do not let the world look away. Keep fighting, keep telling our stories—until Palestine is free.”
The murder of journalists is a deliberate tactic, and the silence and distortion of the western media is complicity. To counter this we can: profile journalists such as Abed Qusini (‘Palestinian Hospitals Call for Urgent Help‘): support cultural activists like Mohammed Moussa and the Gaza Poets Society (‘A statement on writing poetry during a genocide‘); support Palestine Action here; join the BDS movement; and donate to Medical Aid for Palestinians HERE.
No Other Land is available to view on Channel 4 HERE. But other films are available, here’s an incomplete list:
A collection of documentaries published by Al Jazeera Documentary:
bit.ly/3yp2nBI
bit.ly/2SSpMeC
bit.ly/3f0KK3P
“Keeper of Memory” documentary: youtu.be/eywuYeflWzg
“Empty Seat” documentary: youtu.be/an4hRFWOSQQ
“Resistance Pilot” documentary: youtu.be/wqSmdZy-Xcg
“Jenin” documentary: vimeo.com/499672067
“The Olive Tree” documentary: vimeo.com/432062498
“Scenes from the Occupation in Gaza” documentary 1973: youtu.be/1JlIwmnYnlE
Documentary “Gaza Fights For Freedom”: youtu.be/HnZSaKYmP2s
Documentary “Arna’s Children”: youtu.be/cQZiHgbBBcI
Short Film “Strawberry”: vimeo.com/209189656/e551
Short Film “The Place”: youtu.be/fgcIVhNvsII
Documentary “The Mayor”: youtu.be/aDvOnhssTcc
Documentary “The Creation and the Nakba 1948”: youtu.be/Bwy-Rf15UIs
Documentary “Occupation” 101″: youtu.be/C56QcWOGSKk
“The Shadow of Absence” Documentary: vimeo.com/220119035
“The Don’t Exist” Documentary: youtu.be/2WZ_7Z6vbsg
“As The Poet Said” Documentary: vimeo.com/220116068
“Five Broken Cameras” Documentary: youtu.be/TZU9hYIgXZw
“Paradise Now” Feature Film: vimeo.com/510883804
“Abnadam” Short Film: youtu.be/I–r85cOoXM
“Wedding of Galilee”: youtu.be/dYMQw7hQI1U
The feature film “Keffiyeh”: vimeo.com/780695653
The documentary film “Slingshot Hip Hop”: youtu.be/hHFlWE3N9Ik
The documentary film “Tall al-Zaatar”: youtu.be/Ma8H3sEbqtI
The documentary film “Tall al-Zaatar – The Secrets of the Battle”: youtu.be/Ma8H3sEbqtI The documentary film “In the Grip of the Resistance”: youtu.be/htJ10ACWQJM
The documentary film “Swings”: youtu.be/gMk-Zi9vTGs
The documentary film “Naji al-Ali: An Artist with Vision: youtu.be/Y31yUi4WVsU
“The Upper Gate” Documentary: vimeo.com/433362585
“In Search of Palestine” Documentary: vimeo.com/184213685?1
“Salt of this Sea” Feature Film: bit.ly/3c10G3Z
“Speak, Bird” Documentary: youtu.be/wdkoxBjKM1Q
“The Palestinian Exodus” Series: bit.ly/3bXNAVp
“I Am Jerusalem” Series: bit.ly/3hG8sDV
The settlers on West Bank break the law with impunity because the Israeli government encourages and enables them
Israel breaks International Law in Gaza and West Bank because USA enables and encourages them.
Many western countries (including UK) and some Arab countries pay lip service to holding Israel to account partly because of Israeli influence and fear of opposing USA.
The horrifying slaughter of the Palestinian people continues. Starmer refuses to call it a genocide, impunity for the murderous IDF and their master Netanyahu.
Coincidentally I watched No Other Land on All4 earlier today. It’s listed under Film not Documentaries, and as only 7 days left to view there. I wonder how many religious commandments the IDF, Israeli media, settlers, judges, government etc are breaking on a daily basis, but then if your religion celebrates genocide…
A point about the desecretisation pipeline is well made in the documentary towards the end, as well as the importance of public-access historical records (which apparently show the Arab villages in Masafer Yatta being populated since the 19thC, if I recall correctly). Some of those maps would be British, following their own strategic interests.
I imagine past settler-colonialism followed similar lines to the scenes shot in the documentary (now with added genocide). The animals that the Palestinians care for are shown being terrorised too. Israelis make war against the vegetation too, not least by denying water (which feeds another of their myths). But unlike settler-colonialism of previous centuries, the world is watching, and it’s in the world’s interest to have a reckoning (not least because of the entry of Armageddonists into governments).
There is nothing left to say. The point now is to organise – and confront the bystanders and the compliant – who are the biggest problem – always have been – since WW1, the rise of fascism in the 30s, the Spanish Civil War – and all the liberal “interventions” (= bombing and murdering people) since WW2. (50)
Palestine Action and the Belfast BDS show the way.
I would recommend reading a long read article in Guardian written by Joshua Leifers about Meir Kahane to get a better understanding of what is happening in occupied territories.