Latest news with #al-Hathaleen
NDTV
7 days ago
- Politics
- NDTV
Video Captures Moment A Palestinian Activist Is Shot By Israeli Settler
New video footage appears to show the moment a Palestinian activist was killed as an Israeli settler fired toward him during a confrontation with unarmed Palestinians in the occupied West Bank last month. The video released Sunday by B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights group, shows Israeli settler Yinon Levi firing a gun toward the person filming. The footage cuts but the camera keeps rolling as the person moans in pain. B'Tselem says it obtained the video from the family of Awdah Hathaleen, 31, an activist, English teacher and father of three who was shot and killed on July 28, and who they said had filmed it. Levi, who is shown firing his gun twice in a video shot by another witness and obtained by The Associated Press, was briefly detained and then released from house arrest by an Israeli court, which cited lack of evidence. In video footage obtained by B'Tselem, filmed by al-Hathaleen himself, Levi is seen shooting at him. The footage is immediately cut off as the injured al-Hathaleen collapsed. Awdah al-Hathaleen, a human rights activist and resident of the village of Umm al-Kheir in the South… — B'Tselem בצלם بتسيلم (@btselem) August 10, 2025 The shooting occurred in Umm al-Khair, a village that has long weathered settler violence in an area profiled in the Oscar-winning film "No Other Land." Settler attacks on Palestinians have spiked since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, as have attacks by Palestinian militants. "Awdah's killing is another horrific example of how Palestinians, both in Gaza and in the West Bank, are currently living without any sort of protection, fully exposed to Israeli violence, while Israeli soldiers or settlers can kill them in broad daylight and enjoy full impunity while the world watches," said Sarit Michaeli, the international outreach director for B'Tselem. Levi was previously under US sanctions that were lifted by the Trump administration. Both videos appear to show the same confrontation between Levi and a group of Palestinians. The earlier video shows him firing two shots from a pistol but doesn't show where the bullets struck. Several witnesses had told the AP they saw Levi shoot Hathaleen. Avichai Hajbi, a lawyer representing Levi, told the AP that Levi acted in self-defense - without specifying what his actions were. Hajbi pointed to a court's decision earlier this month that released Levi from house arrest, citing insufficient evidence. The judge said Levi did not pose a danger justifying continued house arrest, but barred him from contact with the villagers for a month. The Israeli police didn't immediately respond to a request for comment about whether they'd seen the videos. B'Tselem said Levi was with a crew that brought an excavator from a nearby settlement into Umm al-Khair. Residents, fearing it would cut the village's main water line, gathered on a dirt road to try and block its path, and at least one individual threw a stone at the vehicle's front window. Levi then confronted the crowd while waving a handgun. The new video shows Levi arguing heatedly with three men before firing the gun in the direction of the person filming. Hathaleen was standing at the village community center about 40 meters (130 feet) from the confrontation, said B'Tselem. The bullet hit him in the chest and he collapsed on the spot, it said. Eitan Peleg, a lawyer for Hathaleen's family, said they told him Hathaleen had shot the footage on his phone. He said the police asked him for the video, which they hadn't seen. Peleg said he's urging the district court to investigate Levi for more serious crimes. Levi helped establish a settler outpost near Umm al-Khair that anti-settlement activists say is a bastion for violent settlers who have displaced hundreds since the start of the war. Palestinians and rights groups have long accused Israeli authorities of turning a blind eye to settler violence. In a 2024 interview, Levi told the AP that he was protecting his own land and denied using violence. After Hathaleen's killing, Israel's army initially refused to return his body for burial unless conditions were met for the funeral, including limiting the number of people and the location. After an agreement was made with the police about a week later, Hathaleen's body was returned and buried. Hathaleen had written and spoken out against settler violence and had helped produce the Oscar-winning film. Supporters have erected murals in his honor in Rome, held vigils in New York and have held signs bearing his name at anti-war protests in Tel Aviv. (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Al-Ahram Weekly
06-08-2025
- Politics
- Al-Ahram Weekly
Hunger strike, rage grip West Bank village after Israeli settler kills prominent Palestinian activist - War on Gaza
Sixty women are on hunger strike in the occupied West Bank village of Umm al-Khair after 31-year-old teacher and prominent activist Odeh al-Hathaleen was shot dead by a settler during a raid backed by Israeli forces. His body remains withheld, and his village under siege. The events unfolded last week when a group of settlers, accompanied by army forces, raided Umm al-Khair in Masafer Yatta, uprooting trees and cutting water and electricity lines. When residents protested, they were met with brute force. Among those resisting was al-Hathaleen: an English teacher, father of three, and tireless advocate for his community who was recently featured in the Oscar-winning documentary, No Other Land. During a confrontation in which settlers drove a bulldozer through village land, al-Hathaleen was killed. Eyewitnesses say settler Yinon Levi—who had previously been under US sanctions lifted by the Trump administration—fired the fatal shot. Video footage appears to show Levi shooting wildly as villagers scream. Al-Hathaleen, standing in the village square near the community centre, collapsed. 'Returning home, he was on his way to help us when the bullet hit him,' his cousin, Alaa al-Hathaleen, told the BBC. 'The first shot missed. The second struck him in the heart.' After the shooting, Israeli forces stormed the village, seized his body, and arrested five young men, including a doctor who had tried to save him. A Jerusalem magistrate's court later released Levi. 'Even in death, they pursue us' For more than a week, Israeli authorities have withheld al-Hathaleen's remains. The family says they were offered strict conditions for his burial: transferring the body to Hebron or Yatta, but not allowing him to be laid to rest in his home village. Even if buried in Umm al-Khair, the proposed terms were harsh—no funeral, no mourning tent, and a midnight burial under heavy military presence, with no more than 15 attendees. In protest, 60 women from the village went on a hunger strike, demanding Israel release his body for a dignified burial. When the family attempted to erect a mourning tent, Israeli forces raided the village again. They dismantled the tent and forcibly removed mourners, activists, and journalists from the area. 'Even in death, they pursue us,'Alaa al-Hathaleen said. Dreams of annexation 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, as reported by the Associated Press (AP). In an interview last year, after the sanctions were imposed, Levi claimed the land was his and that he was defending it from 'encroachment' by Palestinians. While over 500,000 Israeli settlers in the occupiedWest Bank hold full citizenship rights, the territory's 3 million Palestinians live under military rule. The Palestinian Authority (PA) exercises limited autonomy in certain towns and cities. Rights groups say Israeli security forces frequently ignore settler violence or intervene on the settlers' side during confrontations with Palestinians. Umm al-Khair lies within Area C of the West Bank, under full Israeli control, and sits just below the Israeli settlement of Carmel. All Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, are illegal under international law. The killing of al-Hathaleen is part of a broader pattern of violence against Palestinians, reflecting increasingly overt plans to annex West Bank land and impose new facts on the ground. In late July, the Israeli Knesset passed a non-binding resolution to apply Israeli sovereignty over the occupied West Bank. Palestinians have expressed concern that the declaration could pave the way for accelerated settlement construction, demolitions, and forced displacement. Since the outbreak of the war on Gaza in October 2023, the Israeli military has conducted major operations across the West Bank, killing hundreds and displacing tens of thousands. In tandem, settler attacks on Palestinians have surged. Israeli settlersand soldiers have killed at least 1,010 Palestinians and injured over 7,000 in the occupied West Bank since the outset of the war on Gaza, according to local health authorities. Al-Hathaleen's killing prompted a wave of international condemnation. The French foreign ministry issued a statement urging the Israeli government to hold the perpetrator accountable and labelled settler violence 'a matter of terrorism'. 'A victim of a decades-long project to uproot Palestinians' Al-Hathaleen's death now marks a tragic coda to the story he helped tell in No Other Land, the Oscar-winning documentary that captured the daily struggle of Masafer Yatta's native Palestinian population to remain on their land in the face of escalating violence, forced displacement, and illegal settlement expansion. His presence in the film—calm, defiant, rooted—reflected a life shaped by resistance. In death, he has become a symbol of the very project the documentary sought to expose, sparking an outpouring of grief from family, international activists, and rights groups. In an interview with the BBC, No Other Land's Palestinian co-director, Basel Adra, said Odeh believed that a camera could expose what voices, trapped and silenced in this land, could not. 'Odeh was not merely killed by a settler's bullet,' added Israeli journalist and human rights activist Andrej Krasnowsky, a close friend to al-Hathleen. 'His death is the result of a decades-long project aimed at emptying this land of its people.' Follow us on: Facebook Instagram Whatsapp Short link:
