Filmmakers fume as Israel blocks trip to view settler violence

Three months ago, Oscar-winning filmmakers Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham and Hamdan Ballal were on stage to receive an Academy Award for their documentary on Israeli settler violence, No Other Land. On Monday, they were reduced to arguing in vain with masked Israeli troops who would not let a group of international journalists visit the hamlets and villages featured in the film. “The next time your politicians call this country the only democracy in the Middle East, film this so that they can see how democratic it really is,” Mr Adra said. Attacks on these communities rose to critical levels in the months after No Other Land was released, as the filmmakers tried to show to the world’s media on Monday.