A year after Awdah’s killing, Umm Al-Khair struggles for its own survival
Basel Adra reports in +972 on 29 July 2026:
Dozens of family members, friends, solidarity activists, and journalists gathered in the village of Umm Al-Khair on Tuesday to mark the first anniversary of the killing of Awdah Hathaleen. The Palestinian activist and teacher, who was for several years a contributor to +972 Magazine, was shot dead by an Israeli settler who raided his village together with an excavator driver. A year later, Awdah’s killer still walks free.
Awdah was known to many around the world for bringing local and international activists into the nonviolent struggle against Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, and particularly its ethnic cleansing of Palestinian communities in the Masafer Yatta region. The memorial drew Knesset members Ayman Odeh and Ofer Cassif from the left-wing Hadash party, who pledged to continue the struggle Awdah had dedicated his life to and reaffirmed their support for Umm Al-Khair, which stands under constant threat of wholesale demolition.
But the commemoration was repeatedly disrupted by Israeli forces, who threw Cassif to the ground, assaulted several activists, and threatened to disperse the gathering by force and expel everyone from the site. Military vehicles repeatedly sped past the crowd, creating loud noises in an attempt to drown out the ceremony.
Despite the intimidation, participants remained until the ceremony concluded. “Today, we do not stand merely to mourn; we stand to honor [Awdah] with unwavering loyalty,” said his brother Aziz Hathaleen.