Oscar-winning Palestinian filmmaker and activist Basel Adora said Israeli Defence Force (IDF) soldiers searched his home on the occupied West Bank after a group of Israeli settlers attacked him, his family and foreign activists on Saturday.
On Saturday afternoon, a group of settlers began trespassing in his olive gloves from the front post of illegal Havat Maon near the village of Atwani in Adora, Adora told CNN.
Adra was attacked when his cousin, two foreign activists and two brothers attempting to stand up to the settlers, Adra said.
“The police, the army came when the settlers were attacking us,” Adora said. “They didn’t stop them. One of the settlers followed one of the solidarity activists and beat her on the ground. The soldiers did nothing.”
Adora said one of his siblings was turned over by a settler on an ATV and had to be hospitalized.
After the attack, the IDF “invade” with Tuwani and says he has been searching for his house for 20 minutes and looking at his wife’s phone. The army also blocked the village roads to ambulances, Addra added.
“We filed dozens of complaints against these same settlers for grazing sheep inside our olive tree,” Adora said. “We bring in the police and they don’t do anything.”
CNN contacted the mayor of the Regional Council, including Havat Ma’on, for comment. The IDF told CNN in a statement that it unfolded to Atwani after receiving a report “about several terrorists who threw rocks at Israeli civilians adjacent to Atwani.”
“As a result of the rock threw at them, two Israeli civilians were injured and evacuated to receive medical treatment,” the IDF wrote. “After receiving the report, security forces were sent to the scene and are currently searching in the area to question suspects.”
Adora denied that everyone in his group threw rocks and called the allegations “bumor.”
“They were attacking us on private property,” Adora said of the settlers.
Verified by a March report by activist groups by Peace Now and Kerem Navot and CNN satellite analysis revealed that settlers established 49 new illegal shepherd forward posts on October 7, 2023 and between December 2024, a 50% increase.
Previous posts, illegal in both Israel and international law, are often established by the most extreme Israeli settlers.
Last year, Adra and three other filmmakers won an Oscar for their documentary, “No other Land.”
It’s not the first time a filmmaker has been attacked since winning the award. In March, Adora’s co-director on the film was taken overnight by Israeli forces after being assaulted by settlers shortly after an Iftar dinner during Ramadan.
At the time, activists who witnessed the attacks on Baral told CNN that such attacks were regular events.
“They don’t always involve Oscar-winning filmmakers,” he said.
