LOS ANGELES, March 28 — The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences apologised today for failing to defend an Oscar-winning Palestinian filmmaker who said he was attacked by Israeli settlers. The group, which hosts and awards the Oscars each year, wrote to members after movie stars including Joaquin Phoenix, Penelope Cruz and Richard Gere had slammed its initially muted response to the incident. The Academy “condemns violence of this kind anywhere in the world” and its leaders “abhor the suppression of free speech under any circumstances,” said the letter, seen by AFP.
Hamdan Ballal co-directed “No Other Land,” which won best documentary at this year’s Academy Awards. This week, he said he had been assaulted by settlers and detained at gunpoint by soldiers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Unlike multiple other prominent filmmaker groups, the US-based Academy initially did not issue a statement.
On Wednesday, it sent a letter to members that condemned “harming or suppressing artists for their work or their viewpoints,” without naming Ballal. By Friday morning, more than 600 Academy members had signed their own statement in response. “It is indefensible for an organisation to recognise a film with an award in the first week of March, and then fail to defend its filmmakers just a few weeks later,” the members said.
“We stand in condemnation of the brutal assault and unlawful detention of Oscar-winning Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal by settler.
