The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences expressed regret on Friday for not standing up for a Palestinian filmmaker who won an Oscar and claimed that Israeli settlers had attacked him.
Following criticism of its first subdued response to the incident from movie stars including Joaquin Phoenix, Penelope Cruz, and Richard Gere, the organization—which produces and presents the Oscars annually—wrote to its members.
“The Academy “condemns violence of this kind anywhere in the globe” and its leaders “abhor the repression of free speech under any circumstances,” according to the letter, which AFP was aware of.
“No Other Land,” co-directed by Hamdan Ballal, took home the best documentary prize at this year’s Academy Awards.
He said last week that in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, settlers had attacked him and that soldiers had held him at gunpoint.
At first, the US-based Academy did not release a statement, in contrast to several other well-known film organizations.
It denounced “harming or suppressing artists for their work or their viewpoints,” but did not name Ballal, in a letter to members on Wednesday.
By Friday morning, more than 600 Academy members had signed their own statement in response.
“It is indefensible for an organization to recognize 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 settlers and Israeli forces in the West Bank,” they wrote.
“The Academy leadership’s answer “fell far short of the feelings this occasion asks for,” the members added.
According to trade publication Deadline, the board of the Los Angeles-based organization called an unusual meeting on Friday to address the worsening problem.
It apologized to Ballal “and all artists who felt unsupported by our previous statement” later on Friday.
“We regret that we failed to directly acknowledge Mr Ballal and the film by name,” it wrote.
“No Other Land” chronicles the forced displacement of Palestinians by Israeli troops and settlers in Masafer Yatta — an area Israel declared a restricted military zone in the 1980s.
Despite winning the coveted Oscar, the film has struggled to find a major US distributor.
Following Monday’s incident, Ballal told AFP the “brutality” of the attack “made me feel it was because I won the Oscar.”
During his detention at an Israeli military center, Ballal said he noticed soldiers mentioning his name alongside the word “Oscar” during shift changes.
He was released Tuesday, after being detained the previous day for allegedly “hurling rocks.”
Yuval Abraham, who also co-directed and appears in the documentary, has spoken out against the Academy’s response.
“After our criticism, the academy’s leaders sent out this email to members explaining their silence on Hamdan’s assault: they need to respect ‘unique viewpoints’,” he wrote on X, sharing a screenshot of the Academy’s letter.
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