Palestinian activist who worked on Oscar-winning film 'No Other Land' killed in occupied West Bank

Middle East Eye

28-07-2025

Awdah Hathleen, a Palestinian activist who was part of the crew on the Academy Award-winning documentary No Other Land, was shot dead by an Israeli settler on Monday, the film's co-directors say.
Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham, one half of the filmmaking duo, shared a video on X late on Monday evening, local time, in the occupied West Bank, showing an infamous Israeli settler brandishing a gun and shooting at Palestinians behind the camera.
It was unclear exactly who shot the video, but several Palestinians were in the vicinity.
The events appear to have transpired earlier that day in Masafer Yatta, the very village in which No Other Land is set.
The settler in the video posted by Abraham was identified as Yinon Levi, who was sanctioned by the US and European Union in 2024 for his violent attacks on Palestinians and their property.
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The Trump administration lifted those Biden-era sanctions earlier this year.
Levi has been featured in a number of news outlets documenting the impact of sanctions on Israeli settlers.
In the video, he is shown angrily pulling out a handgun as the man filming him repeatedly shouts, "Shoot me! Shoot me!" in English.
After Levi starts shooting at targets off-camera, others in the background start screaming inaudibly in Arabic, until one man runs in front of the camera and shouts at the crowd, "For God's sake, get back!" in Arabic, seemingly trying to de-escalate the situation.
It is unclear whether the video is related to the killing of Hathleen.
Behind Levi is an active bulldozer, a telltale sign of what is likely another Palestinian home demolition by the Israelis, in a bid to make way for further settlement expansion - all of which is illegal under international law.
Who was Awdah Hathleen?
Friends and coworkers mourned Hathleen on social media, describing him as a devoted father and peace activist.
Hathleen had a wife, Hanady, and three children, all under the age of ten. He was an English teacher, a writer, and a footballer who played for the local club in Masafer Yatta.
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Basel Adra, the Palestinian director of No Other Land, shared a photo of himself with Hathleen on X, writing, "My dear friend Awdah was slaughtered this evening. He was standing in front of the community center in his village when a settler fired a bullet that pierced his chest and took his life. ‎This is how Israel erases us - one life at a time."
Jewish Voice for Peace, the US-based activist group, said, "To know Awdah Hathleen is to love him".
"Awda has always been a pillar amongst his family, his village and the wider international community of activists who had the pleasure to meet Awda," the group said on X.
Canadian Rabbi David Mivasair - while condemning remarks by Prime Minister Mark Carney that blamed Hamas for the starvation of Palestinians and Israel's continued war on Gaza - wrote on X that his "friend Awdah Hathleen... has nothing to do with Hamas. It starts with Zionism".
Just last month, despite having a valid US visa, Hathleen was detained at San Francisco airport and then deported back to the occupied West Bank.
His trip was sponsored by the Kehilla Community Synagogue in Piedmont, California. He and his cousin, Eid Hathleen, were scheduled to speak at churches, synagogues, and other establishments as part of an interfaith humanitarian mission that was supposed to take them from California to Washington, DC, and then Boston.
Erin Axelman, co-director of the documentary Israelism, who has seen [Eid] Hathleen speak on numerous occasions and is a supporter of his work, told Middle East Eye that the cousins were 'profoundly important Palestinian peace activists who travelled to the US legally at the invite of progressive Jewish communities, for a speaking tour about peace and justice in Palestine.'
'The Trump administration detained them, and now deported them, solely because they are Palestinian,' Axelman said.