(RNS) — Awdah Hathaleen, a well-known West Bank Palestinian activist shot and killed by an Israeli settler on July 28, was buried Thursday (Aug. 7), after 10 days of negotiations between the family and the Israeli army and police over funeral arrangements.
Only about 200 people were able to attend the early morning funeral, after the military closed off Hathaleen’s village and set up checkpoints at key areas. A military drone circled overhead.
Hathaleen was shot in the chest by a settler who began firing indiscriminately after entering the village driving an excavator to clear land for more settlement building. After the excavator hit a resident, knocking him unconscious, some villagers threw stones at the excavator, prompting the settler to walk toward the village center and start shooting, according to news reports. Film shot at the scene showed the attacker opening fire.
Hathaleen, who was in the village’s center, was shot and died on the way to the hospital.
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A 31-year-old English teacher at a regional school, Hathaleen was committed to nonviolence and had befriended many Muslims, Jews and Christians across the world in his quest to secure equal rights for Palestinian Bedouins in his village, who have been increasingly hemmed in by Israeli settlements.
His village of Umm al-Khair is part of Masafer Yatta, a collection of 19 hamlets that was depicted in this year’s Oscar-winning documentary “No Other Land.” Hathaleen had collected video footage for the documentary. The film’s lead subject, Basel Adra, a …