Mark Ruffalo and Hamden Ballal | Photo Credit: Getty Images, Reuters
Oscar-nominated actor Mark Ruffalo has condemned the detention of Palestinian director Hamdan Ballal by the Israeli Defense Forces. Ballal, one of the co-directors of No Other Land, a non-fiction film that won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature at the recent Academy Awards, was assaulted by Israeli settlers in the Palestinian village of Susiya in the Masafer Yatta area in Southern West Bank on Tuesday. He was later arrested by Israeli forces.
Ruffalo, who has stood by the Palestinian cause in the past, urged all filmmakers and Academy members to come together and protest Ballal’s unlawful arrest.
“No matter where you stand on this issue this is an attack on our beloved art from of film making,” Ruffalo commented on an IndieWire post on Instagram.
A screengrab of Mark Ruffalo’s comment on IndieWire’s Instagram post
“Hamden Ballal is a political prisoner and this is an international incident and violation of human rights. Many of us are not surprised by this behavior from the lawless settlers and the IDF at this point. Kill(ing) journalists and abducting film makers is not an accident but a design for the eradication of a people and their culture. Free Ballal!”— the Mickey 17, Poor Things and Avengers wrote.
Dozens of settlers attacked Susiya on Tuesday destroying property activist group Centre for Jewish Nonviolence told AP.
They attacked Hamdan Ballal, one of the documentary’s co-directors, leaving his head bleeding, the activists said. As he was being treated in an ambulance, soldiers detained him and a second Palestinian man, the group said. It said his whereabouts were now unknown.
No Other Land, which won the Oscar this year for best documentary, chronicles the struggle by residents of Masafer Yatta to stop the Israeli military from demolishing their villages. It has two Palestinian co-directors, Ballal and Basel Adra, both residents of Masafar Yatta, and two Israeli directors, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor
(With inputs from AP)
Published – March 25, 2025 05:30 pm IST
