Palestinian Pro-Israel Activist Says He Faces Death if Returned to the West Bank

Ihab Omar, a Palestinian from Bethlehem who became an outspoken defender of Israel, is pleading for help as Germany moves to expel him after his stay permit expired. In a rare interview with Kikar HaShabbat, he said German authorities have refused to extend his status and are sending him back to the Palestinian Authority territories, despite the danger he says awaits him there.

Omar said the risk is not abstract. If he returns to Judea and Samaria, he said, his own family will kill him. “They do not see me as a son, they see me as an infidel and a traitor. And the blood of traitors is permitted,” he said, describing the threat as coming from relatives angered by his support for Israel.

The article says Omar grew up in Bethlehem in an environment shaped by terrorism and hatred toward Israel, but later chose to publicly defend Israel and became one of its strongest advocates in the Arab world. He is now described as being at a point of no return, after a period in Germany as a place of asylum ended without renewal.

The piece frames Germany’s decision as a bureaucratic closure that ignores realities on the ground and leaves him exposed to death. It also asks whether Israel will help protect someone who fought for its image and “stood on the front line of hasbara,” or abandon him. The full interview has not yet been published, and only a short clip was released.