LONDON: Israeli forces cordoned off the small Palestinian community of Umm Al-Khair more than 25 times last year, while settlers intensified their attacks to terrorize residents into leaving their homes, the brother of prominent activist Awdah Hathaleen told Arab News.
Aziz Hathaleen is visiting the UK this week for the first time to continue the work that his brother began in London in 2024 before an Israeli settler killed him on Jul. 28, 2025.
The Britain Palestine Project, an advocacy group, has invited him to speak with MPs and civil society organizations about the impact of the settlement drive on the lives of 300 individuals in Umm Al-Khair, a Bedouin community near Hebron in the southern occupied West Bank.
The close-knit residents have been living in this area since 1948, after their larger tribe, Arab Al-Jahalin, was forced to leave their lands in the now Israeli towns of Beersheba and Tel Arad during the Nakba of 1948. Like many other Bedouin communities, they settled on slopes and mountains, up and down the Jordan Valley.
Umm Al-Khair is situated in Area C, where Israel maintains full security and administrative control. Aziz told Arab News that the village was built on private land the Hathaleens bought, with ownership recognized in documents signed by Israel’s Civil Administration.
