
The name Awdah means "return." Awdah Hathaleen, who became a leader of the village of Umm al-Kheir in the West Bank, lived most of his life near the settlement of Carmel, which grew at breakneck speed while Umm al-Kheir remained a site of temporary structures made of plywood and tin. Awdah will never return to his land or receive recognition of his right to it, but in the way he lived, and in the way he led his community, this return seemed to exist inside him.