A settler allegedly killed a Palestinian, and there's video. Israel released him to house arrest
Witnesses say Yinon Levi, who was previously under U.S. sanctions that were lifted by the Trump administration, killed Awdah Hathaleen, an activist, English teacher and father of three. The shooting occurred Monday night in Umm al-Khair, a village that has long weathered settler violence in an area profiled in an Oscar-winning film.
The Israeli military said an Israeli civilian had opened fire toward 'terrorists' who hurled rocks at Israelis. Israeli police said they detained an Israeli for questioning 'on suspicion of reckless conduct resulting in death and unlawful use of a firearm,' as well as five Palestinians and two foreigners.
Police said Tuesday that a court denied their request to extend the detention of the Israeli and ordered the suspect's release to house arrest. The police did not identify the suspect, but Israeli media ran photos of a smiling Levi inside a courthouse on Tuesday.
Multiple calls placed to Levi's phone were not answered, and it was not known if he had hired an attorney.
Meanwhile, residents said four of the five arrested Palestinians remained in Israeli custody.
Umm al-Khair is in Masafer Yatta, the focal point of the Oscar-winning documentary 'No Other Land,' which chronicles the Palestinians' effort to remain on their land in the face of violence and the expansion of Jewish settlements considered illegal by most of the international community.
Hathaleen, whose footage appears in the documentary, was outspoken about life under Israeli occupation. His death sparked an outpouring of grief from family, international activists and rights groups.
'They took the other half of my heart,' his brother-in-law, Tariq Hathaleen, wrote on Instagram. 'You were always telling the story, and now you've become the story.'
Video shows shots fired
The encounter in which witnesses said Hathaleen was shot was caught on video in footage obtained by The Associated Press.
The video shows Levi waving a pistol during a standoff with a group of Palestinians on a dusty road, a yellow excavator visible in the background. Witnesses said Levi was there to protect the excavator, which had rolled down from a nearby settlement and damaged Palestinian property earlier in the day.
Alaa Hathaleen, a cousin who filmed the encounter, said he approached Levi 'face to face, filming him with my phone, telling him that we don't have weapons and we were trying to stop him.'
In the video, a Palestinian shouts that Levi is a 'bastard and a thief.' Levi shoves someone just out of the frame and shouts: 'Who threw stones?'
Another Palestinian shouts 'Shoot me! Shoot!' and Levi fires a shot, seemingly away from the crowd. He then glances back at the excavator and fires again. 'Get away from here, go away!' Levi shouts.
The video does not show where the bullets struck.
Motasim Hathaleen, 38, another cousin who was standing a few dozen meters (yards) away, said he saw Levi fire twice and then saw Awdah fall to the ground. Local activists said they attempted CPR.
Trump had lifted US sanctions
Rights groups say Israeli security forces frequently ignore settler violence or intervene on the settlers' side during confrontations with Palestinians. Israel says its forces try to maintain order.
The over 500,000 settlers in the West Bank have Israeli citizenship, while the territory's 3 million Palestinians live under military rule, with the Palestinian Authority exercising limited autonomy in towns and cities.
Settler attacks on Palestinians have spiked since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, as have attacks by Palestinian militants. The military has carried out several major military operations in the West Bank that have killed hundreds of Palestinians and forced tens of thousands from their homes.
Last year, the Biden administration imposed U.S. sanctions like travel bans and asset freezes on radical settlers accused of violence, including Levi. The State Department at the time accused Levi of leading settlers in attacks on Palestinians, threatening them, burning fields and destroying property. He is still sanctioned by the European Union, the United Kingdom and Canada.
Anti-settlement activists say Levi has led attacks that displaced more than 300 Palestinians from four nearby hamlets since establishing a settlement outpost known as Meitarim Farm in 2021.
In an interview last year, after the sanctions were imposed, Levi said the land was his and that he was protecting it from encroachment by Palestinians. He denied using violence to displace people.
'Little by little, you feel when you drive on the roads that everyone is closing in on you,' he said at the time. 'They're building everywhere, wherever they want. So you want to do something about it.'
U.S. President Donald Trump, who lent unprecedented support to Israel's settlement movement during his first term, lifted the sanctions after returning to the White House.
'What am I supposed to tell his kids?'
The extended Hathaleen family and activists gathered at a mourning tent on Tuesday. Israeli troops arrived later, ordering all foreign passport holders and media to leave, saying the area was a closed military zone.
'He left behind three children,' Alaa, who filmed the video of Levi shooting, said. 'The oldest is only five years old. What am I supposed to tell his kids?'
Basel Adra, the Palestinian co-director of 'No Other Land' who lives in a nearby village, said Awdah was a 'father, was a teacher, was an amazing activist and a close friend to us.'
Umm Al-Khair was founded in the 1950s by traditionally nomadic Bedouin, who settled there after being uprooted from the Negev desert during the 1948 war surrounding Israel's creation. Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war.
Last year, Israel's military tore down a quarter of the homes in Umm Al-Khair, saying they had been built without Israeli authorization.
The settlement of Carmel, just a few miles away, was built in the 1980s. Large homes and lush gardens sit across a barbed-wire fence from the village, whose homes of corrugated tin bake in the summer sun.
On the day he died, Awdah sent an urgent call to his network of activists and reporters.
'The settlers are working behind our houses and the worst (is) that they tried to cut the main water pipe for the community,' he wrote. 'If you can reach people like the Congress, courts, whatever, please do everything. If they cut the pipe the community here will literally be without any drop of water.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NBC News
25 minutes ago
- NBC News
Appeals court keeps in place restrictions on immigration stops in L.A. based on language and job
LOS ANGELES — An appeals court on Friday kept in place a Los Angeles federal judge's ruling that bars immigration agents from using a person's spoken language or job, like day laborer, as the sole pretext to detain people. The 9th U.S. Court of Appeals in its ruling said that there seemed to be one issue with U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong's temporary restraining order, but it did not overturn it as the government sought. The appeals court said that one part of the July 11 temporary restraining order did appear to be vague. "Defendants, however, are not likely to succeed on their remaining arguments," the court ruled, referring to the U.S. government. Frimpong, a judge at the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles, issued the temporary restraining order after a lawsuit was filed by people who claimed they were detained by immigration officers without good reason. Three people were waiting at a bus stop for jobs when they were detained by immigration officials, and two others are U.S. citizens who claim they were stopped and aggressively questioned despite telling agents they were citizens. Other organizations, including the United Farm Workers, also sued. Frimpong wrote in the temporary restraining order ruling that the people suing were 'likely to succeed in proving that the federal government is indeed conducting roving patrols without reasonable suspicion and denying access to lawyers.' The July 11 restraining order bars the detention of people unless the officer or agent 'has reasonable suspicion that the person to be stopped is within the United States in violation of U.S. immigration law.' It says they may not base that suspicion solely on a person's apparent race or ethnicity; the fact that they're speaking Spanish or English with an accent; their presence at a particular location like a bus stop or a day laborer pickup site; or the type of work one does. Los Angeles has been targeted by the Trump administration for immigration raids that the city's mayor has decried as a campaign to terrorize residents. The lawsuit that led to the temporary restraining order was filed against Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and others. Kyle Harvick, the deputy incident commander for the government's immigration action in Los Angeles, said that "certain types of businesses, including carwashes" were chosen by immigration agents "because past experiences have demonstrated that illegal aliens utilize and seek work at these locations," according to the appeals court ruling. The appeals court found that "the four enumerated factors at issue — apparent race or ethnicity, speaking Spanish or speaking English with an accent, particular location, and type of work, even when considered together — describe only a broad profile and 'do not demonstrate reasonable suspicion for any particular stop.'" The appeals court panel said that the government did not dispute constitutional issues when trying to get the temporary restraining order stayed. 'They did not meaningfully dispute the district court's conclusion that sole reliance on the four enumerated factors, alone or in combination, does not satisfy the constitutional requirement of reasonable suspicion,' the appeals court panel wrote. The appeals court did find that part of Frimpong's temporary order was vague, relating to "except as permitted by law" in the clause about detaining people based on the four factors of race, speaking Spanish, a location or type of work. But it otherwise denied the government's motion for a stay. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, a Democrat, called the appeals court ruling a victory. "Today is a victory for the rule of law and for the City of Los Angeles," she said in a statement."The Temporary Restraining Order that has been protecting our communities from immigration agents using racial profiling and other illegal tactics when conducting their cruel and aggressive enforcement raids and sweeps will remain in place for now." The immigration raids launched in Los Angeles in June resulted in large protests in the city, some of which turned violent. The Trump administration sent National Guard troops and Marines to Los Angeles in a move that was condemned by Bass, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and others.
an hour ago
Sprinter Sha'Carri Richardson arrested for incident at Washington airport involving boyfriend
Reigning 100-meter world champion Sha'Carri Richardson was arrested last weekend for allegedly assaulting her boyfriend at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Richardson was charged Sunday with fourth degree domestic violence, according to the police report obtained by The Associated Press. On Thursday, she ran in the opening round the women's 100 meters at U.S. track and field championships in Eugene, Oregon. She has an automatic bye to the world championships in September in Tokyo as the defending champion. The 25-year-old Richardson was booked into the South Correctional Entity (SCORE) in Des Moines, Washington, at 6:54 p.m. last Sunday and released Monday at 1:13 p.m. 'USATF is aware of the reports and is not commenting on this matter,' USA Track and Field said in a statement. Richardson's agent did not immediately reply to an email request for comment. The police report said an officer at the airport was notified by a Transportation Security Administration supervisor of a disturbance between Richardson and her boyfriend, sprinter Christian Coleman. The officer reviewed camera footage and observed Richardson reach out with her left arm and grab Coleman's backpack and yank it away. Richardson then appeared to get in Coleman's way with Coleman trying to step around her. Coleman was shoved into a wall. The report later said that Richardson appeared to throw an item at Coleman, which the TSA indicated may have been headphones. In the police report, the officer said: 'I was told Coleman did not want to participate any further in the investigation and declined to be a victim.' Richardson won the 100 at the 2023 world championships in Budapest and finished with the silver at the Paris Games last summer. She also helped the 4x100 relay to an Olympic gold.
Hamilton Spectator
2 hours ago
- Hamilton Spectator
After a reference to Trump's impeachments is removed from a history museum, complex questions echo
NEW YORK (AP) — It would seem the most straightforward of notions: A thing takes place, and it goes into the history books or is added to museum exhibits. But whether something even gets remembered and how — particularly when it comes to the history of a country and its leader — is often the furthest thing from simple. The latest example of that came Friday, when the Smithsonian Institution said it had removed a reference to the 2019 and 2021 impeachments of President Donald Trump from a panel in an exhibition about the American presidency. Trump has pressed institutions and agencies under federal oversight, often through the pressure of funding, to focus on the country's achievements and progress and away from things he terms 'divisive.' A Smithsonian spokesperson said the removal of the reference, which had been installed as part of a temporary addition in 2021, came after a review of 'legacy content recently' and the exhibit eventually 'will include all impeachments.' There was no time frame given for when; exhibition renovations can be time- and money-consuming endeavors. In a statement that did not directly address the impeachment references, White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said: 'We are fully supportive of updating displays to highlight American greatness.' But is history intended to highlight or to document — to report what happened, or to serve a desired narrative? The answer, as with most things about the past, can be intensely complex. It's part of a larger effort around American stories The Smithsonian's move comes in the wake of Trump administration actions like removing the name of a gay rights activist from a Navy ship, pushing for Republican supporters in Congress to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and getting rid of the leadership at the Kennedy Center. 'Based on what we have been seeing, this is part of a broader effort by the president to influence and shape how history is depicted at museums, national parks, and schools,' said Julian E. Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. 'Not only is he pushing a specific narrative of the United States but, in this case, trying to influence how Americans learn about his own role in history.' It's not a new struggle, in the world generally and the political world particularly. There is power in being able to shape how things are remembered, if they are remembered at all — who was there, who took part, who was responsible, what happened to lead up to that point in history. And the human beings who run things have often extended their authority to the stories told about them. In China, for example, references to the June 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing's Tiananmen Square are forbidden and meticulously regulated by the ruling Communist Party government. In Soviet-era Russia, officials who ran afoul of leaders like Josef Stalin disappeared not only from the government itself but from photographs and history books where they once appeared. Jason Stanley, an expert on authoritarianism, said controlling what and how people learn of their past has long been used as a vital tool to maintain power. Stanley has made his views about the Trump administration clear; he recently left Yale University to join the University of Toronto, citing concerns over the U.S. political situation. 'If they don't control the historical narrative,' he said, 'then they can't create the kind of fake history that props up their politics.' It shows how the presentation of history matters In the United States, presidents and their families have always used their power to shape history and calibrate their own images. Jackie Kennedy insisted on cuts in William Manchester's book on her husband's 1963 assassination, 'The Death of a President.' Ronald Reagan and his wife got a cable TV channel to release a carefully calibrated documentary about him. Those around Franklin D. Roosevelt, including journalists of the era, took pains to mask the impact that paralysis had on his body and his mobility. Trump, though, has taken it to a more intense level — a sitting president encouraging an atmosphere where institutions can feel compelled to choose between him and the truth — whether he calls for it directly or not. 'We are constantly trying to position ourselves in history as citizens, as citizens of the country, citizens of the world,' said Robin Wagner-Pacifici, professor emerita of sociology at the New School for Social Research. 'So part of these exhibits and monuments are also about situating us in time. And without it, it's very hard for us to situate ourselves in history because it seems like we just kind of burst forth from the Earth.' Timothy Naftali, director of the Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library and Museum from 2007 to 2011, presided over its overhaul to offer a more objective presentation of Watergate — one not beholden to the president's loyalists. In an interview Friday, he said he was 'concerned and disappointed' about the Smithsonian decision. Naftali, now a senior researcher at Columbia University, said museum directors 'should have red lines' and that he considered removing the Trump panel to be one of them. While it might seem inconsequential for someone in power to care about a museum's offerings, Wagner-Pacifici says Trump's outlook on history and his role in it — earlier this year, he said the Smithsonian had 'come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology' — shows how important those matters are to people in authority. 'You might say about that person, whoever that person is, their power is so immense and their legitimacy is so stable and so sort of monumental that why would they bother with things like this ... why would they bother to waste their energy and effort on that?' Wagner-Pacifici said. Her conclusion: 'The legitimacy of those in power has to be reconstituted constantly. They can never rest on their laurels.' ___
