Three-Year-Old Remembers Father Killed Filming Settler Violence in West Bank

NRK warns of strong images in the case.

At an Israeli construction site on the occupied West Bank, three-year-old Mohammed points at a memorial site. He remembers his father, Odeh, very well.

The place the three-year-old points out is where Palestinian activist Odeh Muhammad Hathaleen stood with his son Mohammed on his arm when he was shot by a settler.

It was July 28th of this year that odeh filmed Israeli settlers arriving with container-houses to the village of Umm al-Khair in Masafer yatta,to expand settlements on the occupied West Bank.

On his arm he had his son mohammed when a settler lifted his arm and fired a shot. Odeh filmed it all on his phone. The video shows the moment he was shot and later died in hospital.

“- He fell with Mohammed here. There was plenty of blood. MohammedS white t-shirt was full of blood,” Mohammed’s uncle, Khaleel Hathaleeen, told NRK.

Odeh was one of those who contributed to the Palestinian-Israeli documentary “No Other Land,” which won an Oscar this year.

Two days after the murder, the killer returned to the village and remains free despite the incident being thoroughly documented by multiple witnesses filming it.

Since Odeh was killed, Israel’s plans to annex the West Bank have been gaining momentum.

On Sunday, Israel’s Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, announced that if Palestine is recognized as a state, Israel will respond by taking over the entire west Bank.

According to the Axios news site, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was willing to annex parts of the West Bank.

– The future seems very dark and complex. The future of the Palestinians will be very difficult, says Hathaleeen.

Though, on Monday, trump and Netanyahu met in the white House and agreed on a 21-point Gaza plan that violates Netanyahu’s previous policy.

The plan also states that the US will not allow the annexation of the West Bank.

(Image: khaleel Hathaleen, brother of the late Odeh Hathaleen. Photo: Håvard Greger Hagen / NRK)

Israeli Minister Calls for West Bank Annexation, Rejects Palestinian Statehood

Israel’s far-right Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir stated on Monday that recognizing Palestine is akin to “rewarding the killers from Neve Shalom,” and proposed immediate annexation of the occupied West Bank.He plans to submit a formal proposal for annexation at the next government meeting.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu echoed this sentiment, calling the initiative a “reward for terror” in light of the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, which resulted in 1,200 deaths and 251 hostages. “There will be no Palestinian state,” Netanyahu declared on Sunday, as reported by Reuters.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has also publicly advocated for the annexation of 81 percent of the occupied West Bank and the abandonment of any two-state solution.

Facts about Israeli settlements

• In 1967, Israel occupied the west Bank and Golan Heights in Syria, and has since not withdrawn from thes areas, despite UN Security Council Resolution 242 encouraging withdrawal from occupied areas as part of a peace solution.
• Israel has since established 141 settlements and 224 so-called outposts in the occupied areas of the west Bank and an additional 15 settlements in East Jerusalem. 32 settlements have also been established on the Syrian Golan Heights.
• The settlements in the West Bank today house around 700,000 Israelis and are established in violation of the fourth Geneva Convention.
• The UN Security council passed on December 23, 2016, a resolution stating that the settlements and outposts are illegal, and that all construction activity in them must stop immediatly.
• Norway’s position is that “Israel” and “Israeli territory” include the territory which was subject to Israeli control before June 4, 1967.

– 40 Bedouin communities have been pushed away by the settlers in recent years, says Yair Dyir, spokesperson for B’TSELEM.

The Israeli human rights institution believes that the settlers’ actions are organized from the top.

– Israel officially says they wont to annex the West Bank. In order for this to happen, they go for ethnic cleansing of all the small communities. They want to break their morale, and their lives so unbearable that they go, says Dyir.

Sources: UN,Peace Now,NTB