Oscar winner who records the Israeli violence on the occupied West Bank experiences his own film

As an activist, Ballal is committed to preserving the area where he is active as a farmer. In 1980, Israel pointed to the area as a military training zone and since then settlers dispel the original inhabitants, mainly Arabic Bedouins. Soldiers regularly destroy houses, tents, water tanks and olive orchards.

Ballal recorded Israeli human rights violations on the West Bank, culminating in the much -discussed documentary, filmed between 2019 and 2023. The film released a lot internationally, for example when Yuval Abraham and Basel Adra at Film Festival Berlinale The prize for best documentary names.

« We are the same age. (…) In two days we will go back to a country where we are not the same. I live under a civil law, Basel lives under military law, » said Israeli Abraham in Berlin, on stage next to his Palestinian colleague. « We live thirty minutes apart, but I don’t have the right to vote and Basel. I am free to go where I want, Basel, like millions of other Palestinians, is locked up in the occupied West Bank. This situation of apartheid, this inequality between us, has to stop. »

German politicians spoke of anti -Semitism and in Germany the film could only end up in cinemas after the director of the Berlinale had published a statement, nor to regard the film nor the comments of the directors as anti -Semitic. In the US the film was not shown at all.

‘Feels like a punishment’

According to the Israeli army, three Palestinians were arrested on Monday because they would have thrown stones at soldiers. Witnesses contradict this to international press agencies. The army says it has transferred the men to the police for interrogation. A violent Israeli would also have been picked up. For the time being it is unclear where Ballal is being held.

Whether and why the settlers had specifically provided it on Ballal cannot be said with certainty. But his colleague Adra sees the settlement violence in the area increasing and thinks it could be fueled by the international appreciation for the documentary, he says in return for The Guardian. He himself was surrounded and attacked by settlers last month. « We came back from the Oscars and since then there has been an attack on us every day, » he also says AP news agency. « It feels like a punishment. »

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