Facing imminent demolition orders, a West Bank village calls for international support

This article Facing imminent demolition orders, a West Bank village calls for international support was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

In the hills of Masafer Yatta in the occupied West Bank, a small Bedouin community in the village of Umm al-Khair has fought for decades to remain on their land, a rocky landscape dotted with olive trees, where they farm and raise livestock. As a community with a steadfast commitment to nonviolent struggle, they document and fight back against increasing settler violence and land annexation for the illegal Israeli settlement expansion that surrounds their homes. 

In an attack on Oct. 28, the community of 300 people was raided by the Israeli occupation forces and handed a series of final demolition orders for 11 residential homes, a community center, a playground and a greenhouse. Since 2007, Israeli settlers and the military have destroyed more than 100 structures in Umm al-Khair, according to a collective statement from the Umm al-Khair community.

“We are still here, this is my land, I prefer to die in this land,” said Khalil Hathaleen, a member of the village council. Khalil’s brother, Awdah Hathaleen, was a peace activist who was killed on July 28 by Yinon Levi, a formerly-sanctioned Israeli settler, who shot him in front of his family and neighbors while he was documenting the settler harassment and bulldozing of their olive trees.

On a daily basis, community members face harassment, stalking, intimidation, and threats of physical and sexual violence — realities of occupation and apartheid enacted by settlers and reinforced by the settler government. “Five years ago, we had 5,000 goats and sheep, now [we have] 1,000,” Khalil said.

The Bedouin families of Umm al-Khair were forced out of their ancestral land in Naqab Desert and relocated to the South Hebron Hills in 1948, following the establishment of the state of Israel. Palestinians refer to the mass expulsion that happened in 1948 as the Nakba, Arabic for “catastrophe,” during which 750,000 Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes by Zionist militias.

Carmel, an illegal settlement with a population of 1,000, is steps away from Umm al-Khair’s community center and playground, Israeli flags waving high above the homes. In 1981, the Israeli military seized the village’s land to build Carmel.

Electrical wiring from the settlement passes over the roofs of the village to power a poultry farm that the settlers operate. Umm al-Khair does not have access to this electricity, and the water supply is frequently cut off for village residents despite the Carmel’s reliable connection. Palestinians’ access to water has decreased and become more expensive since Oct. 7, 2023, part of larger Israeli policies of water deprivation in the West Bank.

On Oct. 9, settlers bulldozed 100 olive trees and stole them from the family’s land. Settlers set up spiraling barbed wire to restrict further movement of Palestinian communities to their land, some of the wire lining the roof of the homes. 

For Palestinians, rebuilding is near impossible because Israeli municipalities so rarely grant building permits to non-Israelis. In contrast, settlers have a carte blanche for development and unrestricted access to water and electricity. 

Much of Masafer Yatta, part of the larger Hebron Hills region, was designated as Firing Zone 918 by the Israeli military in the 1980s, another tactic for forced displacement which is deemed illegal under international law.

“Umm al-Khair is an example for a lot of Palestinian communities living in Area C,” said Eid Hathaleen, a nonviolent activist and community leader. “We are a very serious example of expelling people, taking their land [through] different laws.”

The 1995 Oslo Accords divided up the West Bank into Area A, B and C. Umm al-Khair is within Area C, comprising about 60 percent of the West Bank, which is controlled by the Israeli military and the Civil Administration — a branch of the Israeli military that handles civil matters in Area C. There are around 300,000 Palestinians and 450,000 Israeli settlers living in Area C. 

Area A, 18 percent of the West Bank, is under Palestinian control, and Area B, 22 percent, is under joint Palestinian-Israeli control. The Israeli military is ultimately responsible for governance, and it collaborates with settlers to fortify settler colonies on Palestinian land in all three areas. 

The occupation of the West Bank persists for Palestinians, and they have faced increased settler violence since Oct. 7, 2023, when the genocide began in Gaza. “If you ask anyone in the community, the women, ‘what do you need?’ They will answer, one night’s sleep,” Khalil said. “We don’t look for the future.” 

Legacy of resistance in Umm al-Khair

Residents of Umm al-Khair carry a legacy of potent and principled commitment to resistance. Awdah dedicated his life to fighting for the rights of Palestinians. He contributed footage to the Oscar-winning documentary, “No Other Land,” where journalists and activists highlight struggles against settler violence and home demolitions in Masafer Yatta. Awdah was a beloved husband, father of three, community leader, English teacher, and close friend of the film’s co-directors.

Eid, Awdah’s cousin, said of Awdah: “This is his way in life: to document, to show his friends the truth and always keep nonviolent resistance. The last thing he did was stand inside this basketball playground, filming the settlers where they were, harassing and damaging the trees, attacking his family outside of the fence.” 

On the day Awdah was killed, Palestinians threw stones in response to settler harassment and escalation, and the settlers retaliated with guns. Levi, who murdered him, owns an illegal farming outpost in the South Hebron Hills, and a demolition company that contracts with the Israeli government. He was placed on house arrest for just three days before being freed by an Israeli court. 

On the cement basketball court beside the community center and playground, a circle of rocks surrounds blood stains from the day of Awdah’s killing. “This is his blood,” Eid said. “A blood of peace, a blood of love of everybody.”

In the wake of Awdah’s death, over 60 women in the community — even some who were breastfeeding — went on a hunger strike to pressure Israel to release Awdah’s body back to the community, which was eventually returned 10 days later. After organizing the strike via a shared WhatsApp group, they sat together in a fasting hut. Hunger strikes are a historic instrument of Palestinian resistance, a collective response to collective punishment, from political prisoners to those in solidarity with them. 

“Striking is in our hands. It’s what we feel we can do as women,” said Sara Hathaleen, Awdah’s sister-in-law, in an interview with The Nation. Ekhlas Hathaleen, wife of Awdah’s older brother, added: “If there was anything else we could have done, we would have done it, but we couldn’t. This is all we can offer — abstaining from eating.”

“We’re striking because the world needs to wake up,” hunger striker Myassar Hathaleen told the Associated Press. “We don’t want to make any problems. We just want to live in justice, and in silence.”

Awdah’s wife, Hanady Al Hathaleen, was also striking. “Awdah was killed here because he was resistant, in his own way,” she told the Associated Press. “He was killed here and he must be buried here. The land of Umm al-Khair drinks from his blood.”

In a 2022 article on +972 Magazine, Awdah remembered the legacy of a community elder, Hajj Suleiman, who was crushed by an Israeli police tow truck and is now memorialized in a mural on the side of the town community center. Awdah wrote, “his death represents the loss of a defender of our people who brought his characteristic nonviolent resistance to all spheres of our life.” 

History of protective presence

The residents of Umm al-Khair leverage the visibility of the international community with their own efforts to resist settler violence and land annexation. Several international groups frequently visit Umm al-Khair to be visible and hold protective presence at the community center to dissuade settler harassment through embodied accompaniment. Organizations such as All That’s Left, Rabbis for Human Rights, ICAHD and Mothers Against Violence Israel send people of various ages, and this visibility usually minimizes harassment on that day.

The Masafer Yatta Solidarity Alliance seeks to “restore local control over activism efforts” rather than “external stakeholders,” collaborating with three local councils in nearby villages within Masafer Yatta, including Tuwani and Susiya. They provide logistical coordination and support for international activists coming to do protective presence, as well as emergency funds for families experiencing home demolitions and other barriers by settlers and the occupation. 

In June, Eid and Awdah traveled to California for an interfaith peace-building tour, and were detained upon arrival, their visas revoked, and deported. The U.S. officials did not provide a reason for this.

“We have a very strong relationship with our friends around the world,” Eid said. “Umm al-Khair is a peaceful people and a peaceful community, people who believe in peace.”

As of Oct. 30, residents of Umm al-Khair have lawyers representing their case against the demolition orders, though the lawyers believe it will be difficult to stop the demolitions through legal action alone. The Umm al-Khair village community has called on the international community to put pressure on the Israeli government through media attention and contacting their representatives to urge them to intervene, as well as a larger protective presence of activists right now. 

Eid said that unless the “international community takes serious steps to assume a peace process here,” the settler violence, annexation of land and demolitions will worsen. “I believe in sanctions on settlers,” he said. “Settlers, they have a lot of funds for settling. This is the key of the whole game, funding them every day. I hope the international community will do something.”

This article Facing imminent demolition orders, a West Bank village calls for international support was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

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Source: https://wagingnonviolence.org/2025/11/west-bank-umm-al-khair-masafer-yatta-demolition-international-support/