On March 2, I received an Academy Award for greatest documentary for a movie I co-directed, “No Different Land.” It’s arduous to place into phrases how that second felt. It was probably the most unbelievable moments of my life.
Three weeks later, I used to be brutally attacked in my house and arrested. Instantly, it was as if the Oscars had by no means occurred, as if the award didn’t imply something.
I come from Susiya, a small village on the southern fringe of the West Financial institution. We’re however a couple of dozen households. Our principal livelihood is shepherding. Our life is easy. Our properties are easy. The principle factor that steals our time is the near-daily violence and harassment of the settlers and the Israeli Military implementing the occupation. Los Angeles and the Oscars had been of a wholly totally different world from the one I do know: I used to be struck by the big buildings, the dashing vehicles, the wealth throughout me. And abruptly there we had been, me and my three different co-directors, on one of many world’s most essential phases, accepting the award.
Our tales, our communities and our voices had been within the highlight. Our wrestle and our struggling had been on show, and the world was watching — and supporting us. For years, we’ve been desperately making an attempt to make our names and our wrestle recognized. Now we had succeeded past something any of us may have ever imagined.
Once they known as our names and the title of our film flashed on the display screen, I misplaced myself. I couldn’t really feel my fingers. I knew there have been individuals throughout me, however I couldn’t see them. I walked to the stage, following my toes, however my thoughts was utterly clean.
We made our film in an effort to deliver consideration to the state of affairs the place I dwell, to attempt to deliver change to our communities, however once I was attacked, I spotted that we had been nonetheless trapped in the identical grinding loop of violence and subjugation.
March 24 was a typical Ramadan night. The solar was setting as my household sat down to interrupt our quick. Then my neighbor known as: Settlers had been attacking. I ran to doc the second, however once I noticed the group develop, I nervous about my household and rapidly returned house. Quickly I noticed a settler and two troopers coming down the hill towards me. I shouted to my spouse to maintain our three younger kids — 7, 5 and 1½ years previous — inside, with the door closed. I advised her to not open the door, it doesn’t matter what she heard.
I acknowledged the lads coming towards us. They met me exterior the door of my house and began beating and cursing me, mocking me because the “Oscar-winning filmmaker.” I felt weapons bashing my ribs. Somebody punched me within the head from behind. I fell to the bottom. I used to be kicked and spat on. I felt immense ache and concern. I may hear my spouse and children screaming and crying, calling for me and telling the lads to go away. It was the worst second of my life. My spouse and I each thought I’d be killed. We feared what would occur to my household if I died.
It’s troublesome for me to jot down about this second now. After I used to be overwhelmed, I used to be handcuffed, blindfolded and thrown into a military jeep. For hours I lay blindfolded on the bottom on what I later discovered was a military base, fearing that I’d be held for a very long time and overwhelmed repeatedly. I used to be launched a day later.
The assault on me and my group was brutal. It acquired massive quantities of press protection, however it isn’t distinctive in any method. Only a few days later, dozens of settlers, lots of them masked, attacked Jinba, a village close by. 5 individuals had been hospitalized, and greater than 20 had been arrested. Later the military raided the village and ransacked properties, the mosque and the varsity. In Susiya alone, from the start of the yr to the March 24 assault, native activists recorded greater than 45 incidents with settlers or troopers. Throughout our area, Masafer Yatta, that quantity is far increased.
I would like you to know our land doesn’t know solely violence. There are dozens of small, pastoral Palestinian villages that make up this area. The panorama right here is gorgeous and large. 12 months after yr, we plant the land and graze our sheep within the fields. Our mornings begin with a cup of tea drunk at dawn whereas the flocks benefit from the dew that’s nonetheless recent on the grass. The day continues with tending the land, caring for the animals, milking the sheep and goats and getting ready the meals and items from our labor. The entire household and the entire village are concerned on this day by day work collectively, serving to and supporting each other.
However with this near-daily violence, we really feel on the precipice of shedding all the things. Once we are unable to shepherd and farm due to continuously encroaching settlements and ever extra aggressive settlers and troopers, we lose our revenue, our supply of meals, our traditions and our lifestyle. Worry is a continuing, from morning to nighttime. Our energies are consumed by protecting ourselves and our youngsters protected.
In Masafer Yatta our lives are suffocated by aggression. We all fear that our village is the following to be dismantled, our individuals expelled.
On the day of the assault, alongside the concern, I felt one thing else I didn’t count on: heartbreak. My coronary heart was damaged from the frustration. From the sense of failure. From the powerlessness. Three weeks earlier, on the Oscar stage, I had a style of energy and chance. However despite the fact that our film acquired international recognition, I felt I had failed — we had failed — in our try to make life higher right here. To persuade the world one thing wanted to vary. My life continues to be on the mercy of the settlers and the occupation. My group continues to be affected by endless violence. Our film received an Oscar, however our lives are not any higher than earlier than.
There isn’t a legislation to show to right here and no authorities that can shield us, no worldwide legislation and no worldwide our bodies which might be pushing to cease this violence. And but, despite all this and despite what I’ve been by way of and my group has skilled, there are nonetheless some bits of hope that stay from what I noticed and felt on the Oscars and over the previous yr presenting our film around the globe.
The press consideration that the assault in Susiya acquired due to our Oscar victory was in contrast to something we skilled earlier than. The messages and voices of help around the globe have been overwhelming. I do know that there are hundreds and hundreds of people that now know my title and my story, who know my group’s title and our story and who stand with us and help us. Don’t flip away now.
Hamdan Ballal is a filmmaker, author and human rights activist. His movie “No Different Land” received the 2024 Academy Award for greatest documentary characteristic.
Supply {photograph} by Oren Ziv.
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