I was Palestinian activist Awdah Hathaleen's rabbi and friend. He was not killed in my name
I was one of his rabbis; he was my teacher.
On Monday, unarmed and posing no danger to anyone, he was killed by an Israeli settler who believes that Palestinians have no right to live in the West Bank, or in any of Israel/Palestine, and that Judaism requires Jews to expel them from it. I disagree, and furthermore, claiming that my religion justifies Awdah's death is a sacrilege.
I had known Awdah for eight years, since I first visited to his village, Umm al-Khair. I came as a rabbi who was disturbed by the many reports of how the Palestinians were treated in the occupied West Bank by Jewish settlers. Maybe it was my Jewish ethics, or maybe it was a guilty conscience that called me to see the situation for myself.
Once I saw that degrading behavior, I could not turn away. What had been abstractions gleaned from daily news reports turned into real people trying to keep their children safe, to raise them with love even while living under a Damocles sword.
These Palestinians became people with names: Awdah, Eid, Tariq. The villagers were happy to have visitors who would, like me, inevitably join them in any way we could to help them in their nonviolent resistance to the encroachment of Carmel, the illegal Jewish settlement growing ever bigger every year that abuts the village and threatens its future existence.
When I met Awdah, I was so touched by what a good soul he had and what a creative organizer he was. He was diligently studying English. He wanted to communicate the plight of Palestinians under occupation. He believed that when people understood what was happening, they would become allies. That is why he was active in the creation of the acclaimed film 'No Other Land,' to let the world to know what was taking place in his neighborhood.
Piedmont's Kehilla Community Synagogue became allies when we formed Face-to-Face under the inspiration of our founder, Rabbi Burt Jacobson. Every month we would meet with Awdah on Zoom and get often-depressing updates from the village. We raised money for Umm al-Khair when its cars and equipment were destroyed by settlers or the Israeli military. We raised money for school books. It was the least that we could do.
In June, Face-to-Face worked with Awdah and Eid Suleiman to bring them to the Bay Area. After the many times they welcomed me in their village, I looked forward to greeting them at our shul. Finally, they would be face-to-face with our congregants and be able to talk to audiences at other places around the United States.
Phil Weintraub, a Kehilla member who worked on the lengthy effort to obtain visas for Awdah and Eid, went to pick them up at the airport. Hours passed after their plane landed, but they did not emerge from customs. We were finally told that they were being detained. We asked public officials to intervene, and demonstrated at the airport. All to no avail. After 26 hours the two men were put on a plane to return them home.
Despite their absence, we gathered that evening to share our anger and disappointment, and to affirm our conviction to keep supporting the village.
From my own interactions with him, I know that Awdah, who was just 31, was dedicated to the principles of nonviolent resistance to end the occupation. Yinon Levi, identified in videos shooting at the villagers and killing Awdah, is a settler famous for his zeal in terrorizing Palestinians. President Joe Biden had him sanctioned in 2024 for his alleged role in violence against Palestinian civilians. President Donald Trump lifted that sanction on the first day of his second term.
When the Israeli authorities finally showed up to the scene where Awdah had been murdered, Levi himself pointed out the people that he wanted arrested. Amazingly, his wishes were granted. Eid Suleiman and 13 others are in detention in Ofer prison as of this writing. Levi was briefly detained overnight and released to house arrest, but no one, not the villagers nor the settlers, expects him to suffer any serious consequences.
No consequences is what killed my friend. Israel won't impose them, nor the United States. Neither will our American Jewish legacy institutions, who, while claiming to support a two-state solution, have never seriously criticized the expansion of the occupation.
In my final in-person conversation with Awdah last August, he confided he was struggling with what to tell his children. 'I can't tell them that everything will be OK and I can't say that they'll be fine.'
I'd never seen sadness disrupt his optimism. And I never expected that his children would be fatherless within a year.
David J. Cooper is rabbi emeritus at Kehilla Community Synagogue, which he co-founded with Rabbi Burt Jacobson in 1984.
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