Jerusalem, 14 July, 2025 (TPS-IL) — A Jerusalem court on Monday acquitted a Jewish minor accused of participating in a violent clash in the South Hebron Hills, casting doubt on the portrayal of the incident in the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land. The film, which won Best Documentary Feature at the 2025 Academy Awards, presented the confrontation as a one-sided case of settler violence that led to the destruction of a Palestinian village in Masafer Yatta.
However, in a detailed ruling, Jerusalem Juvenile Court Judge Kati Tsvetkov-Dorfman found that the narrative presented in the indictment — and echoed in the film — did not align with the facts. “From the totality of the evidence before me, a picture and sequence of events emerge that are different from the way they were detailed in the indictment,” the judge wrote.
The incident occurred in Sept. 2021 during the Jewish holiday Simchat Torah. A group of Israelis, including the defendant, walked from the direction of the Havat Ma’on community toward Mitzpe Abigail to pray. According to the prosecution, the confrontation began when several Israeli youths threw stones at a Palestinian shepherd. The situation escalated quickly, and dozens of Israelis — some allegedly armed with clubs and knives — entered a nearby village, throwing stones and smashing windows.
But the court found that the sequence of events was more complex than the prosecution or the film had suggested.
After the initial encounter between the boys and the shepherd, a group of Palestinians arrived. A soldier intervened and managed to calm tensions. But then, according to the judge, “a large stone was thrown from the Palestinians’ direction toward the settlers.” Only after that, she said, did the settlers begin to enter the village. Both sides engaged in stone-throwing during the melee.
The minor, the only person charged in connection with the incident, maintained that he had not participated in the violence. He said he had been wearing a coronavirus mask in accordance with public health regulations at the time and was on his way back to Ma’on Farm when he was hit in the head by a stone. He lost consciousness and awoke in an ambulance. The defendant told the court he did not recall the incident, adding that if he had thrown a stone, it would have been in self-defense.
Judge Tsvetkov-Dorfman ultimately accepted his account, finding no evidence he had entered the village or taken part in the violence. “The defendant cannot be placed within the village,” she ruled, “and the defendant’s presence in the area should not be seen as complicity in the serious acts committed in the village.” She acquitted him of all charges.
Said public defender Itzik Bam, who represented the teen, “In this case, the false narrative of ‘settler violence’ collapsed when it met the court. We were able to show that it was the violence of the Arabs that ignited the great commotion, and the Arab rioters were not innocent victims.”
In response to the ruling, Regavim, a non-governmental organization that monitors illegal Palestinian construction in Judea and Samaria, tweeted, “About six months ago, the fiction-heavy film ‘No Other Land’ won an Oscar. We were the first to tell you about the lies and distortions through which the invaders of the village of Masafer Yatta are presented as ‘poor’ people forced to evacuate due to ‘settler violence.’”
The tweet added, “This morning, we had to rub our eyes to read that the court has indeed sided with the facts (and not with the false narrative), ruling unequivocally: this is not about violent settlers harming innocent Palestinians, and it was proven: the Palestinians played an active role in the confrontation.”
