Brandishing his gun wildly, an extremist
Israeli settler, Yinon Levy, faces off
with Palestinian villagers.
He opens fire with deadly consequences.
The same scene filmed by the victim
standing well back from the crowd. Yinon
Levy claims he's acting in self-defense,
but it seems clear there's no threat to
his life. Eyewitnesses backed by
comprehensive video evidence say he's
the only one who's armed. As he shoots,
the cameraman falls to the ground.
Villagers rush desperately towards him.
He died a short while later.
This is the man who was killed. Odalene,
a prominent local activist who'd helped
work on an Oscar-winning documentary.
A month on, his dried blood remains on
the spot where he died alongside an
appeal for justice few here in the
occupied West Bank believe will be
served.
>> There are four of them now and there are
bases for more.
>> And now on land Yinon Levy helped
prepare. In the middle of the night,
settlers have installed four mobile
homes
>> for more caravans.
>> Dark has lived here his whole life. Alda
was his cousin. These caravans that they
are located now in the heart of the
village few meters you can see the
community center the family house there
this is clearly the intention is to take
to scare the people out over here the
small Bedawi village of hair has been
the focus of nonviolent resistance for
years under threat from Israeli
demolition orders all the while the
Israeli settlement of Carmel next door
illegal al under international law has
been expanding.
It's Israel that sets the rules here.
Just 24 hours after the shooting, the
settler Yinon Levy was released from
jail. More than a dozen Palestinian
villages, including Tharic, were kept in
custody for days. If we have a case
where we see the settler pull out his
gun and shoot a Palestinian standing
there doing nothing, we yet will see the
Israeli police, the Israeli government,
the Israeli legal system to find an
excuse to take the settler out of this
this crime
>> and instead
always like if a Palestinian even have a
gun, he would be killed immediately.
Since the October 7th attacks by Hamas,
thousands of Palestinians have been
forced to flee their homes in the West
Bank by violent settlers, emboldened by
an atmosphere of revenge and impunity.
Over the past 2 years or so, at least 16
Palestinians have been killed by Israeli
settlers, according to the UN. As of
now, not a single settler has been
convicted as a result. Right now, we're
on our way to Jerusalem where Yinon
Levy, the man accused of killing Alder
Hatalin, is due in court.
Prosecutors are yet to file charges
against him. But residents of Omal are
trying to obtain a court order banning
Yinon Levy from the area as he's
repeatedly returned.
>> Hi, Sakand Kamani from Channel 4 News.
>> Some some questions.
>> We've come to try and challenge him
ourselves.
>> Why did you shoot an unarmed man?
[Music]
Why are you Why are you driving
Palestinians off their land?
>> Many people would see you as basically a
racist, violent thug. You have nothing
to say in response.
>> You think you think it's funny?
I mean, someone got shot, someone got
killed. You have nothing to say about
it.
>> Nothing to say at all.
Radical settlers feel they don't need to
answer to anyone.
With allies in the heart of government,
attacks by extremists now take place on
a daily basis.
Their aim to drive Palestinians off the
land, particularly the rural areas of
the West Bank as right-wing politicians
push to formally annex the territory.
Haget Offin works with a left-wing
Israeli NGO.
>> These incidents of settler violence that
we're seeing are these just the actions
of fringe extremists.
>> It's not fringe extremists. They they
are extremists. They are not the
mainstream, but they have the support of
the government. They are making as many
facts on the ground as possible to make
it harder for establishment of a
Palestinian state.
We head back to Omar.
Despite the violence, the community
remains defined.
>> Alder Hatalene's widow says fear won't
force her from her home. We will not
lose anything more than we lost. We lost
Auda. Like when they killed Auda, they
didn't kill one person. They killed all
the community. But they think that we
lost. No, we are not the loser. They are
the losers. the settlers, the losers, we
will be here in this land which like
full of out of blood.
>> Even as a number of Western nations now
look set to recognize a Palestinian
state, life here in the land intended to
be at the heart of it looks more
precarious than ever.
>> Well, the Israeli government is expected
to hold a cabinet meeting this Sunday
discussing whether to annex parts of the
occupied West Bank. I certainly think
something like that is very possible in
the leadup to next month's UN General
Assembly meeting as an Israeli response
to promises by countries like Britain
and France to recognize a Palestinian
state. Then uh we also saw today part of
a US response to those moves um where
the uh state department issued uh a
statement saying that visas would not be
granted to officials from the
Palestinian Authority citing amongst
other reasons negotiations by the PA to
secure unilateral recognition for a
Palestinian state. It's really an
unprecedented move by the Trump
administration. And don't forget when
they came into office they revoked the
sanctions that were in place on
extremist settlers including Yinon Levy.
Uh it's really incredible when you think
about it that someone like Yanon Levy
who's still sanctioned by Britain. Here
in Israel he's receiving contracts from
state bodies for construction work in
the occupied West Bank. But of course
it's Gaza where we continue to see the
worst horrors. Dozens more Palestinians
killed by Israeli forces today. more
deaths linked to the man-made famine,
too. And the Israeli army has also said
it's recovered the body of one Israeli
hostage who is being held in Gaza and
the remains of another. More protests
calling for a hostage deal instead of
the continuation of the war are expected
here in Israel over the weekend.