LONDON: Israeli forces cordoned off the small Palestinian community of Umm Al-Khair more than 25 times last year, while settlers intensified their attacks to terrorize residents into leaving their homes, the brother of prominent activist Awdah Hathaleen told Arab News.
Aziz Hathaleen is visiting the UK this week for the first time to continue the work that his brother began in London in 2024 before an Israeli settler killed him on Jul. 28, 2025.
The Britain Palestine Project, an advocacy group, has invited him to speak with MPs and civil society organizations about the impact of the settlement drive on the lives of 300 individuals in Umm Al-Khair, a Bedouin community near Hebron in the southern occupied West Bank.
The close-knit residents have been living in this area since 1948, after their larger tribe, Arab Al-Jahalin, was forced to leave their lands in the now Israeli towns of Beersheba and Tel Arad during the Nakba of 1948. Like many other Bedouin communities, they settled on slopes and mountains, up and down the Jordan Valley.
Umm Al-Khair is situated in Area C, where Israel maintains full security and administrative control. Aziz told Arab News that the village was built on private land the Hathaleens bought, with ownership recognized in documents signed by Israel’s Civil Administration. A wire barrier separates it from the nearby Carmel settlement, established in 1980.
“They have no excuse to displace the residents of Umm Al-Khair by claiming it’s state-owned land or a firing military zone, aside from daily settler attacks intended to scare and terrorize people away from their homes,” Aziz told Arab News.
In the past four years, these attacks intensified and ranged from cutting down olive trees, attacking livestock, to raising the Israeli flag on the community’s homes, disrupting water and electricity supplies, as well as intruding on the community’s playgrounds.
The Hathaleens have filed multiple lawsuits in Israeli courts regarding Carmel’s expansion and the trespassing of settlers on their land. However, nothing compares to the murder of Awdah, 31, last year, according to his brother. The small community was shocked to lose a dedicated English teacher, prominent activist, and loving parent of three children.
Awdah became well-known for appearing in the 2024 award-winning documentary film “No Other Land.” The film documents the repeated destruction of Masafer Yatta, a community under threat of eviction near Hebron, which Israel has designated as a closed military area, referred to as “Firing Zone 918.”
In August, the settler Yinon Levi, 34, was indicted in a Beersheba district court for reckless manslaughter, armed trespassing, and malicious property damage, in the case of the killing of Awdah Hathaleen. Aziz said he has seen the settler near the site since the tragic incident, as he remains free during the ongoing trial.
In February 2024, the UK government sanctioned Levi with an asset freeze and a travel ban as he “has threatened and perpetrated acts of aggression and violence against Palestinian individuals in the West Bank.” He manages the illegal agricultural outpost Meitarim Farm in addition to his work on constructing settlements.
Aziz said that the UK’s sweeping sanctions on trade with Israeli settlements in September and the recognition of the state of Palestine last year are “albeit late, it’s welcomed.”
He felt strong support for Palestinian rights among the British people during his first-ever visit to the UK. He serves as the engineering director at the Palestinian Ministry of Local Government in Hebron, in addition to being a community leader.
“I hope this support translates into concrete policies by the British government to advance Palestinian rights,” he said.
However, he remains pessimistic regarding any changes to the Israeli settlement policies in the West Bank, even with a new coalition replacing the interim government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“While we may see fewer settler attacks, the land grab will continue. This suffering has all started in 1980,” he said.