Aug. 7 (UPI) — An Israeli settler has been charged in Israel with the alleged killing of a Palestinian activist in the West Bank who contributed to the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land.

The Southern District Prosecutor’s Office said Thursday it had charged Yinon Levi with reckless manslaughter in the fatal shooting of Odeh Hathaleen at Umm at-Khair, a tiny village 15 miles southeast of the West Bank city of Hebron in July 2025. Levy is also facing charges of trespassing while armed and malicious property damage.

Levi, 33, is alleged to have opened fire with a handgun during a stand-off with villagers over an excavator brought in by Levy to clear a route across private Palestinian-owned land, according to the indictment filed in Beersheba District Court.

The indictment states that Levi was a contractor working on a new sub-division of the nearby Carmel settlement when he instructed an excavator driver to clear a new route across private property in Umm al-Khair next door to the site, damaging crops and a fence.

Villagers feared infrastructure would be damaged and allege that Levi had attempted to sever the village’s main water pipe, according to activists.

Scenes of the incident, including footage shot by Hathaleen, a 31-year-old father of three, have been circulating online ever since.

Levi denies the charges with his legal team reportedly preparing to argue self-defense.

The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories said the prosecution was the first since a marked uptick in violence by West Bank settlers triggered by the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks on Israel, saying it highlighted how rare there were consequences for violence against Palestinians.

“The impunity Israel grants to soldiers and settlers who harm Palestinians is not a failure of the system — it is a central component of a policy designed to allow the violence to continue and escalate,” B’Tselem said.

Levi was among several “extremist” Israeli settlers sanctioned in February 2024 by the United States and Britain, which said they had violently attacked Palestinians in the West Bank, threatening to escalate the-then Israel-Hamas war.

Those added to the U.S. blacklist included Levi, David Chai Chasdai, 29, Einan Tanjil, 21, Shalom Zicherman, 32.

Announcing the British sanctions, then-Foreign Secretary David Cameron said Levi, Moshe Sharvit, Zvi Bar Yousef and Ely Federman had joined other extremist settlers in targeting and attacking Palestinian civilians, “undermining security and stability for both Israelis and Palestinians.”

“Today’s sanctions place restrictions on those involved in some of the most egregious abuses of human rights. We should be clear about what is happening here. Extremist Israeli settlers are threatening Palestinians, often at gunpoint and forcing them off land that is rightfully theirs. This behavior is illegal and unacceptable. Israel must also take stronger action and put a stop to settler violence. Too often, we see commitments made and undertakings given, but not followed through,” said Cameron.

Hathaleen featured in No Other Land, which won the Oscar for the best documentary feature film at the 2025 awards and documents a legal battle with Israeli government over an area comprising about 20 villages after a 2022 decision by Israel’s Supreme Court greenlighting the bulldozing of Palestinians’ homes and expulsion of more than 1,000 villagers.

The film also won the Berlinale documentary film award when it premiered at the 2024 Berlin Film Festival.