The death of a Palestinian activist on Monday during an altercation with Israeli settlers south of Hebron caused a firm condemnation of French diplomacy. The man who was killed was at the heart of the documentary “No Other Land”, awarded during the last Oscar ceremony, for his account of the daily violence of colonization in occupied West Bank.
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He is an Israeli journalist, co-director of a award-winning documentary last March in Hollywood who himself announced the death of Odeh Hathalin, in a post post Monday, July 28 on social networks: “Odeh has just died. Murdered”writes Yuval Abraham in this message, accompanied by a video showing a violent altercation, which occurred, according to witnesses, in the locality of Carmel, in the south of the West Bank.
On the images, a man, very agitated and armed, seems to protect a bulldozer, located a few meters behind him. Identified as an Israeli colonist, he squeezes a pistol in his right hand, and held the Palestinians who face him, and that we guess on the images filmed by one of them. In the middle of the cries and insults, the man pushes the inhabitants, then begins to shoot, at the height of men, then in the air, at least twice. According to witnesses, it was this ball drawn in the middle of the chaos that touched Awdeh Hathaleen in the chest.
Father of three children, Odeh Hathalin was a teacher in his village. He also wrote for several press titles, but it was above all his militant activity which made it a known and appreciated face of his community. A role highlighted in the film No Other Landrewarded last March of the Oscar for best documentary. The film describes the violence of colonization in this region of Massafer Yatta, declared a military zone by Israel, through the daily life of a small group of inhabitants of which Odeh was a part.
If his neighbors denounce the act of a colonist, the Israeli police evoke for the moment one “current investigation after an incident“. She made the arrest of four members of the family of Odeh Hathalin, while a suspect, arrested, is simply assigned under house arrest.
The inhabitants of the village have identified the man who we see drawn, and which they consider to be the murderer. Yinon Levi, 32, is not just anyone. It is one of the four Israeli settlers sanctioned by the European Union and the United States last year. In February 2024, the Biden administration accused him of being “Involved in acts that create an atmosphere of fear in the West Bank“, In this case, violent expeditions to drive out Bedouins and Palestinian civilians installed near his Meitarim farm, built as an outpost of colonization in 2021. A few months ago, these sanctions were canceled by Donald Trump.
After learning “sadly […] and meurtre d’odeh hathalin“, France condemned Tuesday”with the greatest firmness […] All deliberate violence perpetrated by extremist colonists against the Palestinian population“. “These violence are acts of terrorism“, Qualifies the press release from the Quai d’Orsay. Words that French diplomacy has never used so far, and which respond to a strong increase in the attacks perpetrated in the occupied territories since the attacks of October 7, 2023.
Just last month, the UN counted a hundred Palestinians injured by settlers, who benefit from leniency, even the complicity of the army, and who are encouraged by the hardest fringe of the Israeli government. Attacks that are almost never the subject of legal proceedings or convictions.
