The Academy of Arts and Cinema Sciences apologized after criticizing its inability to support the winner of the Palestinian Oscar detained Hamdan Ballal.
Nearly 700 members of the vote, including several actors from list A, signed a letter apologizing for not having thanked Ballal and the film directly by name.
The letter intervened after Ballal, who directed the documentary, no other field and won a prize from the academy earlier this year, was attacked and beaten by a group of Israeli colonists and at least two soldiers from the village of West West West of Susiya, in the rural region of Masafer Yatta of the hills in the south of the Hebron.
The bleeding of the head, handcuffed and blindfolded, Ballal, whose documentary recounts the wrestling of the Palestinians of the West Bank to prevent the army from demolishing their villages, was then transferred to a military base and held for a night before being released the next day.
“It was a revenge for our film,” he said.
Wednesday, the wedding Codirector Yuval Abraham said that the Academy, which organizes the Oscars, “had unfortunately refused to publicly support Hamdan Ballal when he was beaten and tortured by Israeli soldiers and settlers. Several members of the American Academy – in particular in the documentary branch – pushed for a declaration, but it was finally refused. The film, they therefore did not feel the need to respond. »»
“In other words,” added Abraham, “while Hamdan was clearly targeted to make no other land, he was also targeted to be Palestinian – as countless others each day that are ignored.
The academy initially responded to the incident on Wednesday, but it did not refer directly to the Ballal. The open letter signed by actors, producers and documentary filmmakers criticized the initial declaration.
“We sincerely apologize to Mr. Ballal and all the artists who have not felt not taken care of by our previous declaration and want to clearly indicate that the Academy condemns violence of this kind all over the world,” read the new declaration, published on Friday.
“We are disturbing in all circumstances the abolition of freedom of expression. It is indefensible for an organization to recognize a film with a prize during the first week of March, then defend his filmmakers a few weeks later.”
He also condemned “brutal assault and illegal detention” of the Oscars winner.
“Ballal targeting is not only an attack on a filmmaker – it is an attack on all those who dare to testify and say annoying truths.
“We will continue to monitor this film team. Earning an Oscar has put its life in growing danger, and we will not massage the words when the security of other artists is at stake.”
The high -level actors who signed the letter included Mark Ruffalo, Olivia Colman, Emma Thompson, Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Joaquin Phoenix and Penelope Cruz.
The incident shed light on the escalation of violence perpetrated by Israeli settlers and soldiers against the Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza War on October 7, 2023, in the threats of the far -right government of the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to annex the Palestinian administration.
The Israeli colonists and the state forces have killed at least 870 Palestinians, including 177 children, in attacks in the West Bank since the start of the last Gaza War, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
From October 7, 2023 to December 31, 2024, at least 1,860 incidents of settlers’ violence in the West Bank were recorded – an average of four a day, according to data from the United Nations Bureau for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
