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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences apologised on Friday after hundreds of its members criticised it for not supporting Oscar-winner Hamdan Ballal, a Palestinian who was recently detained by Israeli settlers.

Israeli military and police detained Ballal on Monday evening after a group of settlers descended on the Palestinian village of Susiya as its residents broke their daylong Ramadan fast, according to the Associated Press.

“We were told that because other Palestinians were beaten up in the settler attack, it could be considered unrelated to the film, so they felt no need to respond,” Abraham said.

"What I know is that there were Palestinian shepherds who were harassed by settlers and then a settler mob started to attack houses here."

He was released Tuesday from Israeli custody, less than a day after Israeli military and police detained him and three other people following a brutal attack Monday by settlers in the occupied West Bank.