Palestinian Awdah Hathaleen who helped make Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land killed in West Bank

Australia Broadcast Center

3 days ago

A prominent Palestinian activist who worked on an Oscar-winning documentary about Israel's occupation of the West Bank has allegedly been shot dead by a Jewish settler.
Awdah Hathaleen, one of the activists from the village of Masafer Yatta near Hebron featured in the film No Other Land, was killed near the southern West Bank village of Umm al Khair on Monday.
Witnesses said he was shot by a Jewish settler during a confrontation near the Carmel settlement next to the village.
Awdah Hathaleen was 31 and had three children.
"I can hardly believe it. My dear friend Awdah was slaughtered this evening," No Other Land co-director Basel Adra said on social media.
The witnesses identified the settler responsible as Yinon Levi, who had previously been sanctioned by the United States for using violence to displace Palestinians.
Video shows him firing a gun and yelling at a group of Palestinians, who village residents said were trying to stop an excavator driving onto Palestinian land.
Israeli media reported that Mr Levi was arrested but the Jerusalem Magistrates Court allowed him to return home on remand while the case is investigated.
Police reportedly told the court Palestinians were throwing stones at Yinon Levi and another settler, a child, and "it appeared their lives were in danger".
Prominent Palestinian activist Issa Amro, from Hebron, told the ABC the loss of his friend was devastating.
"His killing was really a shock for me but to be honest it was not a surprise. We all think that one day we might be killed by the Israeli violent settlers who do everything without any accountability," he said.
"He was one of the best activists for Palestine, for peace, for non-violent resistance."
On Tuesday, Israeli soldiers ejected mourners from a tent set up in Umm al Kheir and fired stun grenades at people who had gathered to pay condolences to Awdah Hathaleen's family.
Israeli members of parliament and the Carmel settlement have expressed support for his alleged killer, Yinon Levi, describing him as a "pioneer".
The Carmel settlement reportedly said of the killing that its residents: "will not accept a reality in which a Jew is attacked, and definitely not on the property of the settlement."
In 2024 the US State Department sanctioned Mr Levi, saying: "(He) regularly led groups of violent extremists who engaged in actions creating an atmosphere of fear in the West Bank. His groups assaulted Palestinian and Bedouin civilians, threatened them with additional violence if they did not leave their homes, burned their fields, and destroyed their property. Levi and other extremists have repeatedly attacked multiple communities within the West Bank."
But the Trump administration removed the sanctions and those placed on other settlers after taking office this year.