‘This is no isolated event’: attack on Palestinian director brings rising settler violence into focus

Activists fear unprecedented levels of violence, with the apparent backing of Israeli authorities, are part of a drive to force Palestinians out of the West Bank

It was about 6pm, just after its Palestinian residents had finished their daily Ramadan fast, when dozens of masked Israeli settlers armed with batons, knives and assault rifles entered the West Bank village of Susiya, in the rural Masafer Yatta area of the south Hebron hills. Among them were a group of Israeli soldiers who escorted the settlers into the village where Hamdan Ballal, one of the four directors of the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, lives.

About three weeks after appearing on stage at the 97th Academy Awards in Los Angeles to accept the Oscar, Ballal has become the victim of the very violence shown in his film.

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