The Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) has apologised for not acknowledging Hamdan Ballal by name after facing criticism following its initial response to the violent attack on the Oscar-winning No Other Land co-director. As reported by news agency AP, their statement condemned “violence of this kind anywhere in the world”.
In a letter to academy members on Friday, academy CEO Bill Kramer and its president, Janet Yang, said they regretted not issuing a direct statement on Hamdan. After a meeting Friday by the academy’s board of governors, Kramer and Yang responded with a new statement.
It read, “We sincerely apologise to Mr Ballal and all artists who felt unsupported by our previous statement and want to make it clear that the academy condemns violence of this kind anywhere in the world,” they wrote to members. “We abhor the suppression of free speech under any circumstances.”
On Wednesday, the academy had released a statement condemning “harming or suppressing artists for their work or their viewpoints.” Yuval Abraham, a journalist and co-director of No Other Land, was highly critical of that response, comparing it to “silence on Hamdan’s assault.”
On Friday, more than 600 of the academy’s 11,000 members had issued an open letter saying the academy’s earlier statement “fell far short of the sentiments this moment calls for”. Among the signatories were Joaquin Phoenix, Olivia Colman, Riz Ahmed, Emma Thompson, Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz and The Zone of Interest filmmaker Jonathan Glazer.
Hamdan was beaten by Israeli settlers in the West Bank and then detained by the Israeli military. The attack followed just weeks after Hamdan and his fellow directors won Best Documentary at the Academy Awards. It was widely condemned by numerous film organisations, among others.
After being detained for more than 20 hours, he was released by Israeli soldiers. Hamdan and two other Palestinians were accused of throwing stones at a settler, allegations they deny. After being released, Hamdan told The Associated Press a settler kicked his head “like a football” during an attack on his village.
No Other Land, a joint Israeli-Palestinian production, chronicles the situation in Masafer Yatta, which the Israeli military designated as a live-fire training zone in the 1980s and ordered the expulsion of the residents, mostly Arab Bedouin. Around 1,000 residents have largely remained in place, but soldiers regularly come in to demolish homes, tents, water tanks and olive orchards.
After not finding a US distributor despite wide acclaim, No Other Land was self-released in theatres. It still managed to surpass $2 million in North American theatres.
