UMM AL-KHAIR, West Bank — Nearly two dozen Bedouin women, enrobed in black, sat on the floor of a modest hut that baked under the desert sun of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The room was quiet, the women still.
The women are on a hunger strike to call for Israeli authorities to release the body of a beloved community leader killed during a clash with a Jewish settler last week. They say they will continue until the man’s remains are returned for burial in his hometown of Umm al-Khair.
Witnesses said Awdah Al Hathaleen was shot and killed by a radical Israeli settler during a confrontation caught on video. Israeli authorities said they would only return the body if the family agrees to certain conditions that would “prevent public disorder.” The villagers say those include limiting at