Call to Action!

by anuradha bhagwati

Dear comrades, friends, community:

I write to you with a broken heart.

Last Monday in the West Bank village of Umm Al-Kheir, our beloved friend, peace activist, and school teacher Owdeh Hathaleen was shot and killed by an infamous Israeli settler. I ask and urge you to please read Al Jazeera's excellent report on Owdeh's killing and legacy, here. The pure hatred in the eyes of Owdeh's hand-gun waving killer needs to be witnessed to be believed.

I have just returned to Masafer Yatta. The settlers and soldiers who have besieged Umm Al-Kheir have not stopped their relentless campaign to extinguish the village; as of today, they continue to attack, arrest, humiliate and degrade the people daily and nightly, while Owdeh's body is held hostage by authorities--Israel refuses to give him back to the family for burial. Meanwhile, half a dozen community leaders remain imprisoned in Israel's Ofer Prison, for no crime whatsoever.

Over 70 women and girls in Umm Al-Kheir have been hunger striking, inspiring a worldwide movement for their village. Below I've compiled an urgent list of simple things our sisters want us to do to help Umm Al-Kheir. Here, though, I want you to know about some of the people closest to Owdeh.

Ajahn Santamano and I were guests of Owdeh's family many times while we provided protective presence for Palestinian villages in Masafer Yatta. Owdeh was a natural leader with a rich sense of humor, intuitive knack for organizing, and generous to the core. I also grew fond of Owdeh's selfless and fun-loving wife, Hanadi. She is a courageous member of the community, wife and mother, doing the exhausting work of raising three young boys while keeping not only her family but also international activists fed and supported.

Hanadi's wit, spunk and sass drew me toward her as much as her emotional depth and love for all of us. I remember the fight she put up with an Israeli settler who'd been harassing the village, and that he'd broken her wrist in his car door while she attempted to stop him from escaping. Hanadi proudly showed me video of the extra kick she'd given his car on his way out. I was howling.

That week, while Hanadi's arm recovered in a cast, I helped wash dishes and change her newborn's diapers. I played old-school Ricky Martin en español in her kitchen as I scrubbed, and recall looking out the window to see Hanadi bee-bopping happily to Ricky's tunes. The heck with vicious settlers, viva, viva Palestina! For the moment, Palestine and Puerto Rico were connected, and I felt such joy.

It is impossible not to fall in love with Hanadi's and Owdeh's kids, especially their eldest son, Watan, a 5 year old whose charm is only exceeded by his adorable irreverence--I still chuckle, thinking of the time Watan doused Ajahn Santamano (in full Buddhist robes) with a water hose, giggling and shouting orders at him all the way as I hollered for him to stop! It may have been the first time I'd seen a human being of any size match a Buddhist monk's typical stateliness with such gall and mischief. So much for typical decorum!

If I hadn't seen Watan for days, Watan would still remember my multi-syllabic, hard to pronounce Indian name, calling for me triumphantly, always teasing, as if I'd never left. For all of his naughtiness, he is a careful and loving big brother, and a brilliant child, one who, with opportunity, is surely destined for the microphone, stage or screen. Watan and his two little brothers are Owdeh's and Hanadi's precious legacy, and the future of Umm Al-Kheir.

Watan pushing his younger brother, Hamoudi, in a wheelbarrow in Umm Al-Kheir, as another child looks on, spring 2025

I was planning to meet with Owdeh next week in person, and it feels surreal that this will never happen. I had been deep in organizing a BIPOC delegation to Masafer Yatta, and Owdeh was to be our key activist partner on the ground. The last time I spoke to him about this idea--Black and brown activists exchanging experiences and uniting in global struggle against apartheid, racism, militarism and settler colonialism, he was very excited. It seemed it had not been done there before. What does it mean for us to organize for Palestine, to organize for our collective liberation, without him?

For now, the women of Umm Al-Kheir have responded with fierce and committed leadership. As they hunger strike, they are urging us to do this, now:

We need to call members of Congress and all people of influence to demand that Israel immediately:

1. Return the body of Owdeh Hathaleen to the village of Umm Al-Kheir without any restrictions, and permit Owdeh's loved ones to bury him there in peace.

2. Release all members of Owdeh's community from Ofer Prison.

3. Bring Owdeh's assassin, Yinon Levy, to justice.

I have returned to the West Bank to grieve with our comrades and loved ones, and stand in solidarity with them against the genocidal regime that continues to ethnically cleanse Palestine. I hope to visit Umm Al-Kheir later today, pending the security situation there. Your prayers and love for the village will be with me. The women have spoken. Please act quickly, for Umm Al-Kheir and all the besieged villages and towns of the West Bank. Do not allow Israel and the United States to do to the West Bank what they have done and are doing to Gaza.

May Palestine be free,

May all freedom-fighters fighting colonialism and empire be free,

May Turtle Island be free,

May we all be free from greed, hatred, and delusion,

With boundless love, and the strength of our ancestors who fought for freedom,

anuradha, in Masafer Yatta