Umm al-Khair is a picturesque Palestinian Village in the West Bank, surrounded by golden hills and olive trees. This community of 500 people lies behind the Jewish settlement of Carmel. On July 28, Carmel settler Yinon Levi drove his excavator into Umm Al-Khair with the intention of destroying the Palestinians’ olive trees and cutting the water pipe, the source of the village’s water supply.
Awdah Hathaleen, a non-violent activist, and resident of Umm Al-Khair, helped create this year’s Oscar-winning documentary “No Man’s Land.” The film depicts “settler violence and Palestinian displacement in the West Bank,” according to NPR.
When a group of residents, including Awdah Hathaleen, caught sight of Yinon Levi atop his excavator, they ran towards him, arms waving, in an effort to get him to leave. Levi first hit Hathaleen’s cousin, Ahmad, with his excavator, knocking him unconscious. Leaving his machine with his gun in hand, he then shot Hathaleen twice in the chest. Hathaleen was taken to an Israeli hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The cruelty doesn’t end here. When the IDF arrived, they arrested eight members of Hathaleen’s family, finally releasing them more than a week later. Israeli authorities refused to turn over his body to his family unless they “agreed to bury him outside of his village, at night, with fewer than 15 people present.” Ultimately, Israel’s High Court of Justice ordered his body to be “released without preconditions.”
Levi, whose murderous act was captured on film, was questioned and released by the authorities in less than 24 hours. He was “among the 13 hardline Israeli settlers targeted for international sanctions for their alleged attacks and harassment of Palestinians in the West Bank. President Trump lifted the U.S. sanctions in January.
Settler violence has been an all too common occurrence in the Israeli occupied West Bank. The 2016 Israeli documentary, “The Settlers,” traces the growth of the settler movement after Israel tripled its territory following its victory in the 1967 war. Israeli Settlers interviewed in the film spoke of their conquest as “divine redemption,” while Palestinians, and most of the world viewed it as an “illegal occupation.” At the time of the film’s release, 50 years after the first settlers moved into the Israeli occupied West Bank, 400,000 settlers resided in 225 settlements and outposts, while 2.7 million Palestinians remained trapped under Israeli occupation. Israel bore the cost of thousands of combat soldiers charged with protecting settlements, with virtually no protections for Palestinians. In the words of one settler, Palestinians would be “a guest in our midst with no political rights.” Following the Second Intifada, which claimed the lives of more than 4,000 Palestinians, 1,000 Israelis and 200 settlers, miles of separation barriers, segregated roads, tunnels and bridges were erected by the government to protect the settlers. Palestinians, who fled to the West Bank in the 1947 war, referred to by Israeli Jews as the War of Independence and by Palestinians as the Nakba, once again were forced to flee.
Today, those motivated by economic opportunity rather than religious aspirations, comprise the majority of settlers.
I visited the West Bank village of Susiya in 2016 as part of a study tour organized by Healing Across the Divides (HATD), an organization that funds grassroots public health programs for marginalized populations in Israel and Palestine. Susiya’s residents have been threatened with eviction by the Israeli government to allow for settlement expansion. An Israeli settlement is a stone’s throw from the impoverished tents that comprise Susiya. I was privileged to sit in on a support group funded by HATD to enable the mothers of Susiya to help their traumatized children, who were attacked by settlers as they went to and from school.
The aftermath of the brutality of October 7th, resulting in what many refer to as genocide in Gaza, has rendered invisible the vicious treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank. Attacks by extremist settlers have become a daily occurrence, while Israeli soldiers too often look the other way or in some instances take part in the violence. Palestinian homes are demolished, land stolen, olive trees, livestock, and access to water destroyed. Movement is limited, even for work. In a system that deprives Palestinians of legal rights, there is little recourse when their rights are violated. Despite accusations that Israel is violating the Geneva Conventions forbidding settlement in occupied territories, the Israeli government claims such rules do not apply.
Although most settlers choose settlements for economic reasons, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s radical right cabinet members align themselves with the messianic and often lawless element of the settler movement. “… the line between settlers and the Israel Defense Forces has become blurred … So when he (a settler) comes to a Palestinian and says, ‘you have 24 hours to pack up and leave or I’m going to shoot you,’ the Palestinian knows there is nothing to protect him,” an Israeli opponent of the occupation told the BBC.
On the day before he was murdered, Awdah Hathaleen wrote his last message to his Whats App group, “Urgent call-the settlers are working behind our houses. And the worst, they’re trying to cut the main water pipe for our community. We need everyone to act. If you can reach people like the congress, the courts, please do everything … If they cut the pipe, the community here will literally be without any drop of water.”
The Israeli government’s actions in both Gaza and the West Bank reflect a will to enlarge the Jewish State by ethnically cleansing Palestinians from the Occupied Territories. Palestinians who fled to the West Bank in 1948, once again are being forced to flee.
As a Jewish American, I am incensed that my government funds an endless stream of weapons that enable the Israeli government to erase Palestinians.
Sara Weinberger lives in Easthampton.