(The Age, SMH, 27/3/2025)

Thank God – never should have been arrested – Mark

Jerusaluem: Israeli authorities have released a Palestinian director of an Oscar-winning documentary who was detained overnight, after what he and witnesses said was an attack by Israeli settlers in the West Bank.
Police said the filmmaker, Hamdan Ballal, one of the directors of the documentary, No Other Land, was questioned along with two other Palestinians on suspicion of hurling stones, property damage and “endangering regional security.” All three deny the accusations, their lawyer said.
The details of the episode are still not entirely clear, and both sides provided conflicting accounts of the events surrounding Ballal’s detention. But witnesses said the detention took place as a group of Israeli settlers — some of whom were masked — carried out an assault in the outskirts of Ballal’s home village of Susya in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
After his release on Tuesday, Ballal, 37, said he had been guarding his home during the attack, worried that the settlers would try to barge in. Suddenly, a man struck Ballal on the head while two Israeli soldiers leveled their guns at him, he said.

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www.theage.com.au/culture/movies/israeli-police-release-oscar-winning-director-20250326-p5lmk6.html