AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
There's been an outpouring of grief around the world this week for a Palestinian activist who was shot and killed in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the area of land captured and mostly controlled by Israel since the 1960 - the - since the 1967 war. The suspect is a settler well-known for his attacks on Palestinians. The man who died helped make this year's Oscar-winning documentary, "No Other Land," which is about settler violence and Palestinian displacement in the West Bank. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley went to the village where he was killed.
(SOUNDBITE OF CAR DOOR SHUTTING)
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: We're arriving at the village of Umm al-Khair. This is where Awdah Hathaleen was killed and where he lived. It's very hot here. We're in the West Bank, rolling hills with boulders and rocks and olive trees and cactuses. And we're right behind the settlement of Carmel, which is tightly enclosed in barbed wire with rolls of barbed wire on the top of the fence. Villagers are gathered under a mourning tent to grieve for the 31-year-old peace activist, English teacher and father of three small boys. Awdah al-Hathaleen's death has drawn international attention, and a delegation of European diplomats has come. Their SUVs are parked on the dirt road beside the village of small stone houses with tin roofs. Annika Malki is the first diplomat to speak.
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ANNIKA MALKI: I am from Consulia Swedia (ph), the Swedish Consulate, and we would also like to convey our sincere condolences. It is a terrible crime, and it shows how vulnerable Palestinians' communities are.
BEARDSLEY: Al-Hathaleen's brother, Khalil, addresses them.
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KHALIL: (Through interpreter) We hope from you to protect the local community here because we're being exposed to cleansing. Look around you. There's no problem. There's no military. No one's evicting us because you're Europeans and you're here. The moment you leave, they're going to come here.
BEARDSLEY: Allegra Pacheco, chief of party for the West Bank Protection Consortium, has been helping this isolated community of 500 people for the last eight years. She reads al-Hathaleen's last message to his large WhatsApp group when the settler bulldozer rolled in last Sunday.
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ALLEGRA PACHECO: (Reading) 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 - I'm sorry. If they cut the pipe, the community here will literally be without any drop of water.
That was his last message, sent at 3 p.m. on Sunday.
BEARDSLEY: Israeli peace activist Oriel Eisner has been sleeping here since the killing to bear witness. He says in the night, when the visitors are gone, the Israeli army comes in to arrest people.
ORIEL EISNER: People aren't sleeping. People are terrified. The settlers and the government, in lockstep with them, are just doing whatever they want and taking over whatever land they want, doing whatever they want with the Palestinians.
BEARDSLEY: Eisner says while this has been going on for decades, it's accelerated since the war, and with the inclusion of far-right settlers in the Israeli cabinet. Seventeen villagers arrested for throwing rocks are still being held, but the settler who allegedly shot al-Hathaleen was released after being detained just 24 hours. He has not been charged...
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BEARDSLEY: ...Despite widely circulated video that shows Yinon Levi wildly waving his handgun...
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Shouting in Arabic).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Shouting in Arabic).
BEARDSLEY: ...And shooting towards a group of village men who are trying to stop the bulldozer. The settler has been sanctioned by the EU and the U.S., though President Trump lifted those sanctions. Israeli authorities are also refusing to release al-Hathaleen's body unless his family agrees to a private funeral with no media. That's another humiliation, says al-Hathaleen's brother, Khalil.
KHALIL: Burial has to be in daylight. It has to be with the presence of all his friends, his people and the media.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Speaking Arabic).
BEARDSLEY: This area of the West Bank, where Israeli settlements are being swiftly built, is entirely under Israeli military law, and Palestinians have few rights.
KHADRA AL-HATHALEEN: (Speaking Arabic).
BEARDSLEY: We head to the women's mourning tent, where there are dozens of mothers with their children. We speak to al-Hathaleen's mother, Khadra (ph) al-Hathaleen, through an interpreter. She says her son was inside, preparing for a trip to the U.S., when the trouble began.
AL-HATHALEEN: (Through interpreter) This guy came on the bulldozer, and he started cutting the trees. Somebody called Awdah. Awdah went out. I followed, and there was blood.
BEARDSLEY: An Israeli ambulance eventually came, and she tried to get in.
AL-HATHALEEN: (Through interpreter) They took him. I said, I want to go with my son. But I was not allowed. Somebody hit me on the hand and slapped me on the face. It's the same guy who killed him.
BEARDSLEY: There's a black bruise on her hand.
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AVI DABUSH: Awdah was our friend, and he was our partner.
(Speaking Hebrew).
BEARDSLEY: Avi Dabush, the CEO of Rabbis for Human Rights, speaks to the mourners.
BEARDSLEY: There are many Jewish activists here. Dabush says they are fighting for the return of al-Hathaleen's body and for the person who shot him to face justice. But he says that's going to be difficult under Israel's current right-wing government.
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DABUSH: Unfortunately, in the coalition, there are people that believe only in violence, believe in Jewish supremacy. We believe in the core values, for us, of Judaism and even Zionism - of living together, reaching out in peace.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "NO OTHER LAND")
UNIDENTIFIED NARRATOR: 1,000 Palestinians face one of the single biggest expulsion decisions since the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories began.
BEARDSLEY: Tragically, people in this village say they believed the Oscar-winning documentary about their struggle with settler violence, "No Other Land," might bring a measure of protection and even lay the groundwork for peace, even though it was never screened in Israeli cinemas. But just the opposite has happened, says Basel Adra, one of the filmmakers.
BASEL ADRA: Awdah was the most peaceful person. He was the person that always gathered us. And he was shot in front of the community center that he built for the kids to play and to have summer camp and to learn.
(SOUNDBITE OF BULLDOZER BEEPING AND CLANKING)
BEARDSLEY: As the village mourns and waits in agony to bury its fallen son, the settlers' bulldozer working steadily away through it all is a reminder of who controls this land.
Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Umm al-Khair in the occupied West Bank. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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