A friend of his from primary school said to me “I can’t believe it… really, it’s like he will come bouncing out of a door any minute, hopping out of a car with his big grin on his face. Any moment we could wake up from this terrible dream”. For those of us who knew Awdah and loved him, thinking of his village of Umm al Khair without him is impossible.
For my part, I met Awdah in 2017. Warm and welcoming, quick witted and funny, we spoke about life, the occupation, activism and Shakespeare (he wasn’t a fan).
As a young man, Awdah had the enthusiasm, the lust for life and the carefree spirit that made him a source of such joy and optimism for those around him. But having grown up under occupation his entire life, watching his family’s homes get demolished while the settlement only a few yards away expanded year on year, he was prudent, cautious, thoughtful and strategic. Needless to say, so much of the activism in Umm al Khair, and the whole region of Masafer Yatta flowed through him and the area around his home has been affectionately referred to as ‘Awdah’s side’ for 10 years by all the visitors to the village until today. Even with him gone none of us can bring ourselves to call it anything else.
We learn solidarity through doing it, and we learn it best from people who live it. Awdah was beloved by Palestinians all over Masafer Yatta and many more all over Palestine. The ISMers and other activists who came to Umm al Khair were under his wing, witnesses and beneficiaries of his tireless efforts up and down the country.
I saw Awdah year after year as he became a school teacher, then after that, a husband, and then a father. Awdah named his first child Watan (homeland). It was deeply touching to see Awdah building his young family and to see how deeply enamoured he was with his wife and children. His closest friends from the village would joke that he would only talk about activism, or his children. “Watan, Watan, Watan… all he ever talks about is Watan!” In a place where existence truly is resistance, the love and care he showed for his family came hand in hand with his resistance to the occupation. His resistance against the relentless attempt to erase him and his people.
As activists we all hope that our efforts bear fruit. Awdah’s determination and charisma brought national and international attention to his village of Umm al Khair, and to all the villages in area C that have been preyed upon by the settler movement and the Israeli state, and neglected by the Palestinian Authority and the international community which claims to favour the two state solution while supporting its defacto destruction on the ground. Awdah was the perfect ambassador travelling many times to Europe to speak on behalf of the community and putting forward Umm al Khair as representative of the broader plight of the villages in the region. His death was commemorated and his memory cherished by people and organisations in London, Rome, San Francisco (where he had been denied entry at the US Border) and many other places. I remember his fervent activism abroad would only be interrupted by extensive shopping trips for his family. Every shop in Rome was scoured for gifts for Watan, Muhammed, baby Kinan and his wife Hanady.
At this terrible time, the community should be mourning their most beloved son, and all of us who have been touched by Awdah should be standing with them, commemorating him and beginning the near impossible task of carrying on without him. But this past week after he was murdered, 20 activists and young men from the community were taken from their beds in the night,some are still being held by the Israeli authorities. 18 are from Awdah’s extended family. And Awdah’s body is being held hostage and will only be returned on repressive conditions. There are no depths to which the occupation will not sink.
Awdah treated every setback with the same resolve, the same positivity and courage that has meant that despite the devastating effects of the occupation, the solidarity network that runs through Umm al Khair remains strong – thanks to him. Now that we are without him, it falls on all of us who knew him to continue the fight in his name, and with the spirit that he showed us. The dignity of the people must be non-negotiable. We must demand the return of his body. The women of the village have commenced a hunger strike to pressure the authorities into releasing the body. They have asked supporters of Umm al Khair to draw all the attention possible towards the strike. When Awdah’s family can finally mourn, the community and all of us who wish to support them can turn to the future. Until then, every day his body is withheld compounds the grief, the injustice and the barbaric sadism of Israeli apartheid. Awdah was a light in this darkness during his life, may his memory light the way for us.
