Hamdan Ballal

Some Lesser Known Facts About Hamdan Ballal

• After completing his formal education, Hamdan Ballalbegan working as a photographer and human rights activist.

• He is associated with the ‘Humans of Masafer Yatta’ group, a collection of 19 Palestinian areas in the southern West Bank, the Hebron Governorate of Palestine. The group shares people’s stories from the area.

• Hamdan Ballal works as a field researcher for many human rights groups such as B’Tselem. He records events related to the Israeli occupation.

  

• As a Palestinian farmer, he faced several threats and pressure from Israeli settlers.

• In 2023, during a media conversation, he said that settlers brought their livestock onto his land when he was sleeping.

• He said that the settlers wanted to take his land and farm.

• He reported that their anger increased after the 7 October 2023 Hamas attacks.

• During the interview, Ballal recalled his meetings with settlers, including one who claimed that God had given him Ballal’s land. After that, he called the police for help, but nothing was done.

  

• In 2024, he co-directed and released the documentary film ‘No Other Land’ with Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, and Rachel Szor.

• The film is about Israeli settlements and violence in the West Bank. It received high praise and won several major awards.

• The documentary won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 97th Academy Awards.

• It also won the Panorama Audience Award and the Berlinale Documentary Film Award at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival.

• Basel Adra, another co-director, was attacked and beaten by Israeli settlers in February 2025.

• No Other Land is Hamdan Ballal’s first film. According to him, he and his co-directors worked on the film for five years.

• On 2 March 2025, at the Academy Awards, he spoke about his film, which shows Israeli settler and military violence in Masafer Yatta.

• Hamdan Ballal said that the film represented the harsh reality that people had faced for decades and demanded action against injustice.

  

• He has documented human rights abuses related to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank.

• On 24 March 2025, Israeli settlers attacked Hamdan Ballal at his home in the Palestinian village of Susiya in the West Bank.

• Reportedly, there were 10 to 20 attackers who were wearing masks and were armed with sticks and stones.

• Hamdan Ballal and other activists from the Center for Jewish Nonviolence were targeted.

• Basel Adra, Ballal’s co-director in the documentary film No Other Land, witnessed the attack.

• Adra said that some attackers carried guns and wore Israeli uniforms.

• The settlers broke windows and cut the tyres of vehicles belonging to Ballal and the activists.

• Hamdan Ballal was beaten and suffered injuries to his head and stomach.

• He was receiving treatment in the ambulance when the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers stopped it.

• The soldiers pulled him out of the ambulance, blindfolded him, and detained him.

  

• Basel Adra told the incident in a media conversation. He said,
  

  Hamdan tried to protect his family and the settlers attacked him. Soldiers started shooting in the air to prevent anyone to help Hamdan. He was shouting for help. They let the settlers attack him and then the army abducted him.”

  He added,

  We came back from the Oscars and every day since there is an attack on us. This might be their revenge on us for making the movie. It feels like a punishment.”

• Basel Adra also claimed that on 11 March 2025, his neighbour’s house was attacked after the ‘No Other Land’ team returned from the Academy Awards.

• After the incident, Basel Adra tweeted that he was with Ballal’s young son following the violence.

• After Hamdan Ballal’s detention, the IDF released a statement about the arrests. It claimed that terrorists began throwing rocks at the security forces.

• They said they arrested three Palestinians suspected of throwing rocks and an Israeli civilian involved in the violence.

• On the same day, Yuval Abraham, Ballal’s Israeli co-director, posted on a social media platform that there had been no sign of Ballal since his arrest.

  

• Another witness, Anna Lippman, said that after the attack the police focused on arresting Ballal and left the settlers who initiated the attack. The police did not help the human rights activists whose cars were destroyed.

• Hamdan Ballal likes travelling to distant places in his free time.

  

• He enjoys smoking cigarettes occasionally.