The Little Guardian of the Land
Fahd al-Hathalin — From a Dusty Football Field to the Frontline of Defense
In the village of Umm al-Khair, south of Hebron, Fahd Majed Shuaib al-Hathalin (16 years old) stands as a guardian of a different kind — not only on the dusty football field, but also on the frontline of land defense, where Israeli bulldozers threaten their homes every day.
With a child’s smile that carries the determination of adults, Fahd says:
“A goalkeeper must stop every ball from entering the net, and I also don’t let any settler enter our land. I guard it the same way I guard the goal — even if I don’t sleep all night.”
Guarding the Goal… and the Land
For Fahd, there is no difference between protecting the goal and protecting the land — both are battles that must be fought to the end.
Every night, he joins the protection and monitoring committees in the South Hebron Hills, staying awake with the adults in fear of settler raids.
With a trembling voice, he adds:
“If a settler enters our land, he destroys it — cuts the trees, burns the houses. I can’t just watch and stay silent.”
Love for the Land Has No Age
Fahd believes that love for the land has no age — whether a child or an elder, both know that leaving it behind is a betrayal of the dream.
But what hurts him most today is the threat to demolish the village’s only football field, a simple space that has become a lifeline for more than 65 children in Umm al-Khair.
“They want to destroy our field — it’s the only place where we forget fear and exhaustion. We play barefoot on its soil, but we love it as if it were our second home.”
The Field of Dreams
Losing this field, Fahd says, would break the hearts of all the village’s children.
They would find themselves trapped between two settlements and a new settler road — without a safe space, without a dream.
“Even if the bulldozers come, we’ll defend our field. They might destroy the walls, but they’ll never destroy the dream.”
In Masafer Yatta, the children don’t just play…
They learn from a young age to be guardians of the land, the future, and hope.
