LONDON: Rights groups and diplomats have condemned the killing of Palestinian activist and journalist Awda Al-Hathaleen, who contributed to the Oscar-winning documentary “No Other Land,” as calls grow for accountability over increasing settler violence in the occupied West Bank.
Al-Hathaleen was shot in the chest on Monday during a raid by Israel settlers in Umm Al-Khair village in the South Hebron Hills. One of the settlers involved in the attack was identified as Yinon Levi, who has been sanctioned by the UK and the EU, while US President Donald Trump rescinded restrictions at the beginning of his presidency this year.
In a statement on Wednesday, Amnesty International condemned the killing as a “cold-blooded” act and “a brutal reminder of the relentless violence faced by Palestinian communities.”
The organization’s senior director for research, advocacy, policy and campaigns, Erika Guevara Rosas, urged an independent international investigation into his death and growing settler violence in the territory.
Describing the situation in the West Bank as state impunity for Israeli settler violence, Rosas called out Israeli authorities for what she described as a “deliberate failure” to investigate settler attacks.
