A Tribute to Awdah Hathaleen

Settler Impunity in Masafer Yatta

I was able to offer a short tribute for Awdah Hathaleen at the International Jewish Anti-zionist Network protest outside the UK Foreign Office.

Today, we gather not just in grief, but in defiance, in memory of a man whose life was a testament to courage, love, and unshakable resistance. Awdah Hathaleen was more than a name. He was a father. A friend to so many. A guardian of his people. A voice for justice in a world that too often turns away.

On July 28th, Awdah was murdered, shot down by a settler in Um Al-Khair in Masafer Yatta, in the presence of soldiers who wished they had pulled the trigger themselves. But Awdah was not killed by a single bullet. He was killed by an entire system - one that protects murderers, punishes the oppressed, and denies even the dignity of a proper burial.

Awdah was a man of peace, he stood unbroken against violence. He faced occupation with a heart full of love for his community, even as that same community was raided, its men snatched away, its women forced to hunger strike for the simple right to mourn.

His body is still held by the same fascist forces that took his life. His family is denied closure. His village is under siege. Journalists have been expelled, mourners have been threatened, a grieving widow violated in her sacred mourning period.

But Awdah’s light cannot be extinguished.

When settlers and soldiers try to erase him, they fail, because we remember. When they jail his brothers, his cousins, his neighbors, they fail, because we resist. When they steal his body, they fail, because his spirit cannot be caged.

Awdah’s murder is not an isolated tragedy. It is the inevitable result of an ideology that dehumanizes, displaces, and destroys. And so, as we mourn, we must also fight. Not just for justice, because in this world, there is so often none, but for liberation. For the dismantling of the machine that took him from us.

To the women of Umm Al-Khair, who refuse to eat until Awdah comes home: your strength is our call to action. To the people in chains, the families under siege: your resistance is our duty.

And to Awdah we say: Your voice lives in us. Your fight is ours. And though they took your life, they will never take your name.

Rest in power, Awdah Hathaleen.

We will not stop until Zionism falls. We will not stop until Palestine is free.