Editors note: This article was originally posted on July 29, 2025. It was updated on August 4, 2025 to include a new action and information.
On July 28, 2025 Israeli settlers murdered Awda Hathaleen, an activist and teacher, in Umm al-Khair (Masafer Yatta). Illegal Israeli settlers were attempting to complete excavation work around Palestinian homes, but local youth intervened. While the Palestinian youth tried to stop them, the settlers attacked. Ahmad Hathaleen was hit with the front of a bulldozer, and Awda Hathaleen was shot in the chest by Yinon Levy, who is already sanctioned by Canada as well as by the EU (and previously by USA before Trump reversed).
After Awda was shot, the Israeli military prevented Palestinian paramedics from treating or evacuating him, “and instead dragged him toward the illegal Carmel settlement.” He did not survive long after arriving at the Soroka Hospital. Several other young men were also arrested by the IOF, while the IOF protected the settlers.
Today, on July 29, the Israeli military declared Umm al-Khair a “closed military zone” and forcibly expelled Palestinians who gathered to offer condolences to Hathaleen’s family. They also stormed the tent set up for the funeral and expelled journalists and activists from Umm al-Khair.
The IDF abducted his body, and arrested over a dozen members of Awdah’s community, including international activists who were subsequently deported.
Since Thursday, July 31, 70 women from Umm Al-Khair, ages 13 to over 70, have embarked on a hunger strike until Awdah’s body is returned for proper burial.
Since Awdah’s murder, the IDF and settlers have raided the village daily, destroyed mourning tents, and the settler who murdered Awdah is free, even from house arrest. Despite video evidence and eyewitnesses to his violence, Levi has faced no consequences for his actions. Levi is so violent that he was previously subject to sanctions by the EU, UK, US, and Canada over past attacks on Palestinians. Those US sanctions were removed by Donald Trump. Sanctions by Canada remain on Yinon Levy (Levi). Meanwhile, members of the village who were arrested are still in prison.
This is not an isolated incident. It is a daily occurrence for Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank. As Israel continues to escalate its genocidal onslaught in Gaza, they also continue to expand their “chronic, insidious genocide” in the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt). In the West Bank, including East Jerusalem there are an average of:
• 10 settler attacks per day
• 24 Palestinians arrested per day
• 2-3 properties confiscated per day
• 5-6 properties destroyed per day
• 62 invasions per day
This is just the data that can be recorded. It is a “small subsection of Israeli settler-colonial violence.”
But, the violence is not isolated to illegal settlers. It is inherent within every facet of the Israeli government’s actions. Recently, the Knesset passed a symbolic motion calling for annexation of the West Bank. In discussing this motion and the brutal statistics of death and destruction, the Good Shepherd Collective noted:
“This snapshot reveals the calculated infrastructure of dispossession — from the 134 deaths and 1,156 injuries primarily in Gaza just on this day to the methodical invasions spanning every West Bank governorate. The systematic attacks on water infrastructure in Ramallah demonstrate how colonization operates through both spectacular violence and mundane resource theft. Each checkpoint becomes a site of humiliation, each invasion a reminder of our supposed disposability. These aren’t random acts but coordinated elements of a colonial project designed to fragment Palestinian society, steal land, and make everyday life impossible under occupation.”
It is past time for the Government of Canada to take action. They not only should, but must act, to be in compliance with international law. While the government has sanctioned Yinon Levy and others, and more recently sanctioned two extremist Israeli ministers, this is purely symbolic without further action. Canada can and must sanction Israel under the Special Economic Measures Act now.
