When Art Meets Oppression—And the Academy Looks Away
Imagine winning an Oscar, only to be detained by the military days later. That's the surreal reality for No Other Land co-director Hamdan Ballal, whose arrest by the IDF—on suspicion of throwing stones—sparked outrage, conspiracy theories, and one glaring silence: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Ballal's filmmaking partner, Yuval Avraham, took to X (formerly Twitter) screaming into the void:
“They lynched him. Kidnapped him.”
The IDF later released Ballal, but the damage was done. The Academy? MIA.
When AMPAS finally responded, it was with a milquetoast letter from CEO Bill Kramer and President Janet Yang, condemning “harming artists” in the vaguest terms possible—no mention of Ballal, Palestine, or the IDF. Avraham fired back:
“This isn't solidarity. It's PR.”
The Hypocrisy Playbook
Here's the uncomfortable truth: The Academy loves performative wokeness—until it's inconvenient. They'll champion “artistic freedom” when it's a safe, sanitized narrative, but when a Palestinian filmmaker is arrested? Crickets.
Even Ballal's Oscar win was against the odds. No Other Land—a searing doc on Palestinian displacement—was blacklisted by U.S. distributors afraid of backlash. Yet it triumphed, thanks to grassroots hustle by publicity firm Cinetic Media. The Academy voted for it. But when the cameras turned off, so did their courage.
The Bigger Picture
This isn't just about Ballal. It's about who gets to be a ‘victim' in Hollywood's eyes. Compare the Academy's swift condemnation of Russia during the Ukraine war to their deafening silence on Gaza. Selective outrage isn't activism—it's complicity.
Avraham put it bluntly: “If this were a white filmmaker, the statement would've named names.” Boom. Mic drop.
What Now?
The Academy's letter claims to represent “11,000 global members with unique viewpoints.” But if those viewpoints exclude Palestinian voices in peril, what's the point?
Here's the challenge: Will AMPAS ever take a real stand—or just keep polishing its golden statues while the world burns?
