An Oscar for ‘No Other Land’ Didn’t Protect Hamdan Ballal

Opinion|My Oscar for ‘No Other Land’ Didn’t Protect Me From Violence

On March 2, I won an Academy Award for best documentary for a film I co-directed, “No Other Land.” It’s hard to put into words how that moment felt. It was one of the most incredible moments of my life.

Three weeks later, I was brutally attacked in my home and arrested. In an instant, it was as if the Oscars had never happened, as if the award didn’t mean anything.

I come from Susiya, a small village on the southern edge of the West Bank. We are but a few dozen families. Our main livelihood is shepherding. Our life is simple. Our homes are simple. The main thing that steals our time is the near-daily violence and harassment of the settlers and the Israeli Army enforcing the occupation. Los Angeles and the Oscars were of an entirely different world from the one I know: I was struck by the enormous buildings, the rushing cars, the wealth all around me. And suddenly there we were, me and my three other co-directors, on one of the world’s most important stages, accepting the award.

Our stories, our communities and our voices were in the spotlight. Our struggle and our suffering were on display, and the world was watching — and supporting us. For years, we have been desperately trying to make our names and our struggle known. Now we had succeeded beyond anything any of us could have ever imagined.

When they called our names and the name of our movie flashed on the screen, I lost myself. I couldn’t feel my hands. I knew there were people all around me, but I couldn’t see them. I walked to the stage, following my feet, but my mind was completely blank.

We made our movie in order to bring attention to the situation where I live, to try to bring change to our communities, but when I was attacked, I realized that we were still trapped in the same grinding loop of violence and subjugation.