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.