Darren Thornton

Statement from Oscar-winning director Hamdan Ballal: This afternoon, nearly a year after we won the Oscar, the same settler who attacked me shortly after l returned from Los Angeles-Shem Tov Lusky-again led an attack against my home and my family. Four of my family members are currently arrested and one is in the hospital. I invite all journalists and diplomats to come visit me and my family this Tuesday, February 17, to hear about how the situation has gotten worse in the year since we won the Oscar, as it has across the West Bank. Email me to coordinate your visit: hamdanalhrane90@gmail.com Two weeks ago we managed to get a decision from the Israeli court that the area around my home is closed to non-residents, but the settlers break that order and still come with their flocks almost every day. We call the police, they do nothing. The army comes, they do nothing. Today, Shem Tov Lusky-the settler who attacked me in my home shortly after I won the Oscar last year-came with his flock to my home. My brother called the police to report the incursion. The army came first and immediately raided our house, attacking everyone inside. Then they arrested two of my brothers, a nephew, and cousin. Another brother was badly injured and is now in the hospital. The Israeli court decision was supposed to make things a bit quieter for us. But the opposite has been true. The settlers have ramped up their harassment and the Israeli authorities have done nothing to enforce the decision, and today they joined the settlers in the attack. 8 hours ago

From Hamdan Ballal, co-director of last year’s Oscar-winning documentary “No Other Land.” This is happening now.

"I would smear the bejaysus out of her, simply because you've nothing to lose... you've got to create a fear... in my experience, nothing works like negative campaigning."

They're really openly saying the quiet part out loud now aren't they...🤔

Gaza, Israel: "Flotilla Serves Hamas, We Will Stop It" - Lapresse.US Turin, Sept. 22 (LaPresse) – “This flotilla, organized by Hamas, is intended to serve Hamas. Israel will not allow the vessels to enter an active combat zone and will not permit the violation of a leg...

Israel is spitting at the world's face, shouting it loud that it will, illegally, attack the Global Sumud Flotilla. If Starmer, Macron, Carney and Albanese really wanted to end the genocide, they would send a naval vessel to protect the flotilla. lapresse.us/world/2025/0...

“How you die does not redeem how you lived.”

To my fellow cishet dudes: when we are quiet about supporting the trans community, the only voices anyone hears are the Charlie Kirks of the world. Don't let accusations of being "performative" or "virtue signaling" shut you up - that's their whole point. Our voices are needed now more than ever.

Opinion | Charlie Kirk Didn’t Shy Away From Who He Was. We Shouldn’t Either.

wrote on charlie kirk for the newsletter this weekend

The Gaza family torn apart by IDF snipers from Chicago and Munich Five-month investigation reveals how four members of one family were shot and killed in a single day and highlights a pattern in which Israeli troops target unarmed civilians

IDF sniper from Chicago who says he killed Gazan teenager just for trying to retrieve his brother's corpse: “They’re thinking, ‘Oh I don’t think [I’ll get shot] because I’m wearing civilian clothes and I am not carrying a weapon' and all that, but they were wrong. That’s what you have snipers for.”

They Want You To Forget What A Film Looks Like - Aftermath The 4K transfer of True Lies is what happens when a company uses proprietary tech to overwrite and denoise history.

Tremendous piece by Chris Person on the pointless mutilation of film history by morons, overeager tech-heads (a subspecies of moron), and directors who've gotten lost in the sauce of unbridled capitalism.

aftermath.site/true-lies-4k...

Sally Rooney: I support Palestine Action. If this makes me a ‘supporter of terror’ under UK law, so be it I would happily publish this statement in a UK newspaper – but that would now be illegal

Sally Rooney: I support Palestine Action. If this makes me a ‘supporter of terror’ under UK law, so be it

“The ‘grown women’ of Ireland remember very well what erasure and control and lack of bodily autonomy feel like and it’s for this very reason that we stand so passionately with the trans community today”

#TransRightsAreHumanRights @independent.ie

Roles reversed: A veteran Gaza aid worker pleads for survival An aid worker in northern Gaza tells NPR that people are starving, water is scarce and basic supplies are out of reach. He warns thousands could die in the coming days if nothing changes.

An aid worker in northern Gaza tells NPR that people are starving, water is scarce and basic supplies are out of reach. He warns thousands could die in the coming days if nothing changes.

Palestinian children detained by Israeli forces: ‘They put on music and colourful lights and started dancing over us ... They had their feet on our backs’ Two Palestinian teenagers from the occupied West Bank describe suffering and seeing systematic abuses while in Israeli detention

Palestinian children detained by Israeli forces: ‘They put on music and colourful lights and started dancing over us ... They had their feet on our backs’

The Handala, which is attempting to bring humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza, is illegally boarded and effectively pirated by the occupying Israeli army that is enforcing a famine. It’s 2025 and this is routine now.

Gaza is starving. Where are the American Jewish leaders? A fear of being labelled antisemitic still deters American Jews and Jewish institutions from taking a position that is morally correct.

The mass starvation & killing of Palestinians in Gaza at the hands of the Israeli gov’t is a chillul hashem, a desecration of God.

Jewish leaders who criticized Zohran Mamdani for three words he doesn’t use should raise their voices loudly here as well.
forward.com/opinion/7575...

Holding important meetings, lamenting bad things, urging people to do good things. The same routine for 20 months. And all the while the arms exports continue, the surveillance flights continue, trade and investment continues, normal diplomatic relations continue. Complicity in genocide continues.

BREAKING: Zeteo has released, globally, the film the BBC so controversially refused to air.

"Gaza: Doctors Under Attack" is now available to watch in full at gazadoctors.film and zeteo.com.

Here's the trailer:

"I don't know to say back to them because we are witnessing in real time—live streamed—their annihilation and extermination of an entire peoples, an entire community. So I don't know what more to say to them. I don't know what more to say here."

#GazaGenocide #FuckIsrael

Four Mothers Review: A Charming Tale of Love and Aging - That Shelf Darren Thornton’s Four Mothers, an Irish remake of the Italian film Mid-August Lunch, is a very easy film to fall in love with.

Another total gem from this year’s #BlueMountainFilmFestival: Four Mothers. An amazing ensemble brings a tale full of heart that manages to avoid tropes and schmaltz. Read my review at @thatshelf.com thatshelf.com/four-mothers...

BFI's Region B Blu-ray of FOUR MOTHERS reviewed on our site: www.dvdcompare.net/review.php?r...

Watch Four Mothers - BFI Player Hilarious, uplifting tale of an Irish son juggling four very different mothers over one chaotic weekend in Dublin.

Four Mothers is a lovely heartwarming watch - just dropped on BFI Player player.bfi.org.uk/subscription...

EXCLUSIVE: American Security Contractor Unloads On US-Israeli ‘Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’ I thought I was signing up for an aid mission. But what I've witnessed in Gaza is horrific.

NEW—A US contractor with inside look at the “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.”

Some contractors never deployed before—or are ex-cops. None are confirmed as trained for the guns they were given.

They saw the IDF targeting Palestinians.

“This idea that the Israeli military isn't involved is bullshit.”

70 residential buildings bombed by Israel in #Gaza in the last 48 hours.

If this is what "civilization" looks like, count me out.

#FreePalestine #GazaHolocaust

Anybody near Wicklow please keep an eye out for this little dote. She's been missing a good while now and we're all losing our minds over her

Mark O'Connell: In The Settlers, Louis Theroux does something we have rarely seen him do Louis Theroux has encountered such people before but they have tended to be fringe propositions with no real power. The Israeli settler movement is different

Great column from Mark O’Connell on Louis Theroux’s the Settlers

www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025...

💪🏻💜

Watched #FourMothers yesterday and it was fantastic!

Heartfelt and funny as hell. Like a big hug!

it's a real feel-good movie.
Go see it!

Just saw Four Mothers. Very funny & warm hearted movie. If you've ever been a caregiver for an elderly family member this is our movie

A poster advertising the movie Four Mothers

An Easter Monday trip to QFT to watch the wonderful Four Mothers. A plot which could very easily descend into silliness, but instead developed into a heartwarming, uplifting comedy propelled along by some excellent performances. Can definitely recommend. #FilmSky