South Hebron Hills

Translator:  Charles K.

6:30-10:00

A lot has been happening recently in the village of a-Tuwwani.  We decided to devote today’s shift to visiting the village.  Despite our long acquaintance with the villagers, despite our joint struggle (like other peace groups and human rights organizations) over their right to remain there and live safely, we are shocked anew each time by the maliciousness and obtuseness of the behavior toward them by the state and its institutions.

Their only sin is that they live at the foot of the notorious settlements of Ma’on and Ma’on Farm, and that among their houses are archaeological remains from the Roman and Byzantine periods (what Israeli locality doesn’t sit on an archaeological site?). 

A bit of history

After considerable struggles and the involvement of many parties, it was finally agreed to connect them to a water supply (they depend primarily on cisterns). But lo and behold, when excavations had just begun to lay the pipes, someone remembered that the location was in fact an archaeological site worth researching.  What’s more important?  Water for people (non-Jews) or the remains of a synagogue thousands of years old?  You guessed right.  So they stopped preparing the infrastructure for the water supply, and stuck a sign from the Antiquities Authority in the middle of someone’s yard,  and dug.  Now we have an important site.  You can’t touch it; you can only make a pilgrimage.

Last Friday, 3.2.12, a group of tourists arrived on a tour run by In the Bible’s Pathways, from Sussia.  They first went to Yata to see the pools from the time of Nabal HaCarmeli, and then came to see the remains of the ancient synagogue in a-Tuwwani.  “Did anyone let you know, try to coordinate with you?,” we asked the people whose yard had become sanctified.  “No,” they replied in surprise.  The buses parked at the entrance to the village, the group entered on foot accompanied by police and soldiers.  They prayed and sounded shofars.  Yehoshofat Tor and his brother from Havvat Ma’on, and settlers from Ma’on,  joined them;  they never miss an opportunity to enter a-Tuwwani and harass its residents .  After an hour and a half of uproar, they left.

“What about the water pipe?  When will they connect you?”, we asked.  “Who knows,” they reply.

Anyway, who really cares?  Everything’s  legal…

That Friday night about 25 more olive trees near their houses were mysteriously cut down, as well as another 15 located farther away.  The people from Tuwwani complained to the police.  Last night, at midnight, they heard noises and went to see what it was.  “Police, army,” they were told, “Go back inside.”

Yes, they came.  To guard?  To arrest settlers?  “Go home, go home,” yelled the law enforcement officials to the settlers; that’s what the residents heard.  The security forces were there until 3 AM, chasing the rioters away.  No one was arrested.  That’s how it was day after day, night after  night.

Again, a stupid question:  Would they behave that way if Palestinians dared damage Jewish property?

A bit more history

Since 1981, when Ma’on was established, and then the adjoining farm, the residents of a-Tuwwani “benefit” from the blows of those “dear ones.”  It began with polluting wells with chicken carcasses, then uprooting olive trees, and finally harassing and frightening children coming from nearby localities to attend school in the village.

Since 2004, thanks to the efforts by Hagit Beck, the residents and the Knesset children Committee at that time, a solution of genius was devised, to which the IDF agreed and was forced to carry out till now, namely – every morning an IDF jeep and soldiers accompany the children coming from Umm Tuba who have to pass by Ma’on on their way to school.

We welcomed the solution.  It was better than nothing.  But we thought:  Our wise men of Chelm haven’t considered (they don’t dare) preventing the thugs from Havvat Ma’on from lashing out at the children.  It’s simpler, fairer and cheaper to provide a military escort every morning for a group of school children.

Has one of us ever  tried to apply that formula where we are?

That’s how things have been since then.

So what’s happened in the interim?  Residents of Tuwwani say that recently the army hasn’t shown up at all, or arrived late, and the children, who were supposed to be escorted at 7:30 AM so they’ll reach school on time, are late or return home because they’re afraid to go unescorted.

A phone call to Col. Guy Hazut, the commander of the Judea brigade, to hear the IDF’s version.  “We’re taking care of it,” he promises me.  “I spoke with my soldiers, who are angry at the valuable time wasted.  They’re the ones waiting, the children are late or don’t show up at all.  Why doesn’t anyone complain about that?”  And he also said that the activity comes at the expense of operations, and that the school bus of the Southern Hebron Hills Regional Council is also late sometimes because of security reasons.  “It happens,” says Col. Hazut.

“It’s 7:45 AM,” I tell him, “there’s no jeep and no children.  They’ll be late to school today also.”

We’re taking care of it, he says again.

It’s almost 8 AM; we hear the children merry in the distance.  The longed-for military jeep is visible on the horizon.  They’ll be late to school today as well.  Men belonging to a peace organization also arrive; they’ve been accompanying the children and observing what’s happening.  They also report on the army’s behavior.  We asked them to give us daily reports, and photos, if possible.  Let’s hope that, confronted by facts in real time, the army will carry out the agreement it made.

____________________

The following is an update from the school patrol of yesterday morning, 05/02/2012. The escort was 50 minutes late. The children waited alone in a dangerous location where in the past they were attacked by the settlers.  Where the army jeep should have been waiting, two settlers stood shouting and whistling to frighten the children. After this incident the children returned to the village of Tuba because the settlers stayed near the chicken barns. The escort didn't arrive at the end of barns to meet the students and didn't complete its entire route, but instead left when it was near Ma’on’s greenhouses. Ma'on’s security chief also followed the children at a distanceOperation dove team

Operation Dove - Nonviolent Peace Corps
Palestine/Israel
Ass. Comunità Papa Giovanni XXIII
 www.operationdove.org

trans. Charles K.

We originally intended to go to Huda’s kindergarten with baskets of fruits and vegetables to teach them about the market and what you can find there. But we anticipated that there would be few, if any children because of the cold, windy weather, while on the other hand our friend Juma’a from Khirbet Tawani told us his tractor had been confiscated until he pays a fine, and he needs us, so we exchanged the kindergarten for the complicated bureaucracy of the occupiers.

We drove to the Palestinian Carmel, to meet up with Eid, who had to be paid for his participation in the kindergarten project.Eid told us about more demolition orders issued for his village, against two buildings, some tents and a soccer field they laid out together with peace activists and with the Civil Administration’s authorization. All because they’re located at the foot of the fence around the Carmel settlement, and the lords don’t like it.

This time they objected to reinforcing the fence posts of the soccer field with concrete…

Eid is optimistic.  He says their lawyer will take care of it.

We met Juma’a at the entrance to Kiryat Arba, with a friend and a car.  It turns out they managed to take care of some of the bureaucracy for us – to bring the Postal Bank payment voucher from the location where the tractor was being stored.

All we had to do was take the voucher and the cash and for the first time in our lives go to the Kiryat Arba post office (there’s no line!) to pay and bring back the confirmation that will allow him to pay the debt and release the tractor, because every day in storage costs him NIS 150!

On the way there, the sight of the demolished trailers of Mitzpe Avichai at the entrance to Kiryat Arba scorched our eyes.  They had been demolished last night, accompanied by massive TV coverage.  The trailers had indeed been overturned, but the solar panels and water tanks were still in place, suggesting that they could easily be re-erected.

Even though it was said the army had closed off the area we saw many settlers around, apparently collecting their belongings.  We took photographs under the watchful eyes of the soldiers lying in wait at the junction with a video camera – part of closing off the area?

We drove back to the checkpoint.

Translated by Jenny L.

Route 60

Strong winds blowing; very little traffic on Route 60. At the foot of Beit Haggai, the entrance to the southern approaches to Hebron has for some time been blocked with stone blocks. In the last year they also added a barbed wire fence, as if anyone could get through this blockade. This morning the fence has been folded back to the side of the road and soldiers in an armored vehicle are on guard there. "Who or what are you guarding?" "We don't know," they answer.

We decided today to travel in the direction of Tekoa, which means turning east at the entrance to Sa'ir and to continue on to Tekoa, toward Jerusalem. We went into Hebron on the way back.

Route 3517 - Route 3670

The road is pretty and silent. A section of it is in fact the continuation of Route 356. Further on, the road leading according to the sign to the veteran settlements Meizad/Asphar which looks to be well established and not far from it, the settlement 'Pnei Kedem', where they are still living in caravans. On a hilltop nearby caravans are to be seen, which aroused our interest. The track was very rough and fearing for our vehicle, our driver parked at the side of the road. All at once we noticed a group of soldiers at the top of the hill. We approached them, in the hope of getting answers to our questions. They are reserve soldiers, tolerant and smiling. "Ah, you're from Machsom Watch!! I'm for you!" exclaims the reservist with the biggest smile.  "No. I didn't mean that, I'm just fooling around. On the contrary!" he continues. "What are you doing here," we ask. "Guarding the road" "What is there to guard?" "That there won't be any problems, any penetrations," they reply. "What's on the hill?" we ask. "We don't know," they answer.  "Good and obedient" soldiers like these draw out our anger about the occupation.  They quietly listen without saying anything. They explain where the settlements seen on the sign are to be found and we drive on to see them. They are located on hills at a high elevation from which all the surroundings can be seen. The military base is located immediately adjoing Meizad. Again we see the symbiosis the authorities have so cleverly created. The fact is again evident that everyone in these places is here with the Government's blessing. The signs indicate that the road continues to the Etzion Bloc.

We returned to the road leading to Tekoa, all the village road signs are primarily to Jewish settlements. Almost all their neighbors, in their villages since time immemorial, might as well be invisible. They don't exist on the map. We continued on to the southern approaches of Jerusalem. The Har Homa neighborhood stands out like a thorn on the landscape. We returned to Route 60.

Hebron

At the entrance to Kiryiat Arba, the guard again, for the thousandth time, requests ID from M. our driver. And yet again we too insist on presenting our IDs. Again a phone call is made to notify our arrival.  The Golani flags are blowing in the wind. Again and again we see "Gideon Family" emblazed on their ensignia. In the city itself, the soldiers have hung posters: "The Lions of Wrath". This is what they call themselves.

We had arranged to meet someone who for eight years has been trying without success to obtain a permit to work in Israel. We gave him the relevant information and were again forced to remark that it wasn't at all certain that we could help him. Our sense of helplessness is a constant source of despair.

Because it was so late, we were "fortunate" enough to see a group of female teachers at the Tarpat checkpoint on their way back to H2. A soldier is trying to direct them to go through the magnometer. They refuse. To our joy, he "remembers" that it's permitted to allow people to go home without being checked and he opens the gate. An exchange of looks between us, small signs of victory exchanged between the women and us, and they turn to go home. "Such happiness."

Translated by Jenny L.

Meitar Crossing

the parking lot on the Israeli side is full of cars and workers who have not yet set out on their journey. The Palestinian side is empty - as each person arrives they are quickly checked and pass through the checkpoint.

Route 60

All checkpoints are open and there is a good flow of people. There is a heavy presence of IDF vehicles along the Route.

Hebron

It's cold and clear in the city. Children are walking to school bundled up in coats. International volunteers are in place at the checkpoints, counting the number of people going through the crossings. Golani soldiers appear to be at loose ends, supervising but scarcely interfering with the flow. The city is quiet and clean, with an element of tension in the air because of the military jeeps circulating between checkpoints.

Route 317

The Ziff Junction - we went into the grocery store to buy something and also to find out whether indeed a Palestinian had forced his way through the checkpoint and been shot on Saturday. According to the grocer's version of events, it was a Palestinian who had been driving an unlicensed vehicle and burst through the checkpoint to escape from the police. Thus an incident of a crimininal background, not a nationalistic one.

We went via Hirbat Tiwani to take a look at digging operations and then made our way back home.

Translated by Charles K.

We entered through the Meitar crossing today as well. Not much traffic on Highway 60, but the traffic police are active.

Hebron

Only M., our driver, is asked for an ID card at the entrance to Kiryat Arba. Our attempts to present ours were rejected. We were told to park off to the side until the guard made a call to receive permission to let us in.

Giv’at Avichai is still there, 11 buildings and vehicles.

Most of the route was relatively quiet, many pupils in the streets (exams are underway and school ends early). We were really astounded to see the path marked in blue and white by the Trail Marking Committee (on the way up to the Cordova school). It was tempting to take it, but in view of the experience of our colleagues in recent days, we refrained.

Tel Rumeida – Golani soldiers don’t want to speak to us; they don’t really seem to understand who we are.  We returned to the car.  Two buses carrying Israeli visitors park at the entrance to the road; one of the drivers explains to the soldiers who we are: “They’re worse than Arabs,” with a wave of his hand.

On the way down we met a group from “Breaking the Silence.”  They said they also want to go up the stairs to “Cordova,” and that it’s necessary to insist, to try again and again.

Many visitors in the area of the Cave of the Patriarchs – Israelis and others.  Today, as it happens, the music comes from the muezzin.

A-Tuwani

We stopped at A-Tuwani, saw the excavations and mosaic Leah Shakdiel referred to, and Nasser showed us a calling card from a group called “Emek Shaveh.”  It’s apparently headed by a person named Yonatan Mizrahi; we immediately saw on the internet that he deals with “Archaeology in the shadow of the conflict”: an effort to build bridges between communities. It would be worth getting to know them; maybe they can be useful.

Nasser is worried that if the excavations continue as planned his home may be damaged, and, of course, their request to be connected to a water line depends on the excavations!!

We visited the small museum and shop.

guests: Shahar and Ellen.

Sansana-Meitar

By 7:30am the checkpoint is clear and only a few workers waited for employers on the Israeli side together with one bus for prisoners' families.

Route 60

Clear and we hardly saw a military vehicle or soldiers.

 Hebron

We stopped at the Tarpat checkpoint where some TIPH internationals were crossing without checking. We asked whether this was the rule and after a lot of mumbling the soldier declared that he only answered what he wanted to. We thanked him for his courtesy and proceeded  up the hill to Tel Romeida. Here a large sign welcomes visitors in Hebrew to military position X (I don't recall the no. and didn't get a chance to photograph it). We decided to show our guests the cage house at Jewish Tel Romeida, but were politely accosted by an officer who agreed to let us pass on condition we didn't try to go beyond that eyesore. However, one of our party took it into her head to proceed whereupon an irate settler leapt from his car and decided to throw us out. The officer reappeared and with polite rudeness(!) shuttled us down the hill for all the world like a hen with ducklings. He refused to allow us to speak until he had finished telling us off for provoking - just who or what was not clear. He cautioned us not to even think of enterng the Jewish cemeteries, which we anyway had no intention of doing. The truth though is that we had no need to beard the settlers in their lair 0 enogh having to deal with them in the public arena. As to the officer, either a lieutenant or a captain, he clearly wanted to avoid a scene - his lordly attitude is part of the infinite power that the army wields and which, unfortunately, doesn't end in the occupied territories but carries over when they return to civilian life.

We then proceeded to Khirbet Al Tuwant where, as Lea Shakdiel has reported, an exciting archeological find purports to be a synagogue from the Second Temple Period.  We met Suleiman Salem ElOndra (?) also known as Nasser, on whose land the excavation is taking place. His house also serves as a sort of community center with a photographic record of the harrassment suffered in the village by settlers from the nearby outposts and settlements.  Thre is also a women's orgamization selling embroidery and crafts.  The history of the dig is as follows: the villagers requested the Civil Administration to connect them to the main water system. The CA agreed but declared that the dig must take place first and only when it is complete can the connection to the water pipeline be maid.  As Lea points out, when there is a dig at a settlement it is no obstancle to the preparation of infrastructure, but here of course the situation is different.  Tuwanis is famous for the fact that the neighbouring village of Tuba sends its children to school there and because of the frequent harrasment and attacks by settlers on the youngsters, they must be accompanied by internationals and/or the army. Not long ago I visited in Soroka Hospital an international volunteer who was beaten and left of dead by settlers.

And to the dig:  according to Ellen who is a tour guide who specialises in archeology - there are clear signs of a Byzantine floor and secondary buildings probably from the Muslim period. However, she also pointed out some remains that seemd to her typical of the Second Temple period, possibly steps leading to a ritual bath (mikveh).  Nasser also took us to another site in the village where his sister has set up house in a cave to protect her land while the excavation goes on.  The dig includes two oil presses and two caves that could indeed be burial chambers from the second temple period.  The question is, so what?  The sad thing is that if this is indeed an interesting archeologoical site instead of bringing economic benefit to the village in the form of tourism, it will bring them more conflict with settlers and their supporters bent on the judaization of the country, and the dispossession of the Palestinians. 
.  Hanna Barag and Yesh Din are planning to visit the site with an expert archeologist. To be continued....

Guest: Shachar

Translator:  Charles K.

Meitar crossing

Many laborers arrived despite the rain and fog. They’re waiting on the Israeli side of the crossing for their employers to pick them up

Route 60.

Nothing out of the ordinary along the road.  The weather affects everyone.

Hebron

The security guard at the entrance to Kiryat Arba again asks who we are, and we again must remind him that we’re all citizens with equal rights [that’s what’s written, at least] and that it’s unacceptable to demand an ID only from someone who doesn’t look Jewish. Again he explains that he has the authority and instructions from the police to ask for IDs.  Again he calls “big brother;” what a quixotic battle in one of the bastions of Israeli racism.  We’ll continue; even stones are worn away by water. 

Golani soldiers in the town since last Thursday. Their signs stand out at the base at the entrance to town.

Rain, fog and bone-chilling cold.

Hagit and Shachar again walk along the new apartheid path which is marked similarly to those of the Nature Protection Society, indicating the shortcut for residents of Tel Rumeida, beginning at the stairs up to the Cordova school/

I remain with our driver because of what has happened in the past; it’s not a good idea to leave him alone here.

They, of course, run into a soldier who reminds them that this path is restricted to the Jewish residents of Tel Rumeida.  And, of course…a bottle is thrown at them from one of the trailers.

That’s how it ends this time.  Otherwise, nothing special occurred.

Next to one of the houses along the road down from Tel Rumeida to the Tarpa”t checkpoint we met a man who lives there.  He’s a physician working in town, in the H1 area. 

“Everything is ok,” he says.  “It’s hard, of course, that I can’t drive my car from home to the hospital,” but everything is ok.

Everything is deserted and closed down, even – by and large - around the Cave of the Patriarchs.  There are always Jewish visitors coming in groups, despite the weather.

We drove home via the Tarqumiya crossing. 

Highway 35

Quiet and deserted.  The soldiers came down from the pillbox next to the grocery but haven’t detained anyone.

At Tarqumiya they’re as “nice” as ever.  Again the questions – who are we, where did we come from.  Again asking to see only M’s ID.  We insist they check ours also.  Again they send us to the inspection area on our right.  They open and inspect the car.  Again they ask for our IDs.  The inspector smiles apologetically.  “Orders.”  “Can’t she exercise any discretion?” we ask.  Can’t you see we’re not security risks?  A shrug.  “Do you also ask residents of Telem and Adura for IDs?”

“Yes,” she replies grudgingly.  Why don’t we believe her?

Translator:  Charles K.

Today is January 1st. Schools on the West Bank are closed for the new year holiday. Nothing unusual occurred.

We entered Al-Tuwani, where an archaeological dig is underway.  We went there because a flyer had been distributed in synagogues reporting that an ancient synagogue had been discovered there.  A mosaic floor is visible at the site (photos attached), as well as the remains of various rooms built in the Byzantine style.  A person living nearby said he hoped the dig would enrich our knowledge of the period but he was also apprehensive about its implications for the continued existence of the locality in which people have been living for many years.  The Civil Administration, meanwhile, has postponed laying the water line, work on which was already supposed to have begun.  Postponements, and more postponements.  (We still remember the well that was poisoned about six years ago by an animal carcass that someone had dumped into it).

We bought excellent, inexpensive olive oil from the grocery at the Hazif junction.

Purpose of Shift:

Activity in Gan Huda for the 7th time this year, with the assistance of Eid & Huda.

HaKhashem-El-Daraj

Today is UNWRA’s clinic day in the village (the villagers are refugees from the Arad area and, therefore, receive their medical services from UNWRA).  We don’t know the schedule of these visits and only realized that it was clinic day,  when we arrived and saw an UNWRA car was parked outside one of the buildings.  Occasionally, during our previous visits to the preschool, a child left the preschool to visit the clinic.

            Twenty children were present today and there was also an additional woman who sometimes helps Huda.  Huda and the children were truly happy to see us.  Some of them got up and squeezed our hands in happiness.  We are already friends and the children now feel freer in our presence.

Topic of activity: My house: reading, discussion, and construction

Program: Reading of “Yael’s House”, discussion on the topic of “the house”, and the building of a house from half of a milk carton pasted onto a carton basis.  Because we were unable to obtain an Arabic version of “Yael’s House”, we used the Hebrew original.  We told the story in Hebrew which Eid translated into Arabic, as the book was held up so that the children could see the pictures.  In our version, “Yael” became “Eiman”.  Of course, the telling of the story in conversational Arabic is not ideal because the beauty, the rhythm, the richness, and the literary value of the story are lost. Nevertheless, as can be seen in the photographs, the story elicited much interest and enthusiasm.   The discussion on the topic of “my house’ was more limited – what a pity.

            The creative activity this time was more complex than usual.  Happily, Huda had already separated the younger and older children.  The younger children were given drawing paper which we brought with us.  Later, it became clear the importance of supervising the younger children because the activity didn’t hold their interest and they rambunctious. 

            As usual, we insisted on dividing the activity into well-defined steps. Coping with complex structure and attention are skills that we perhaps are helping to develop by means of these activities.

1. We gave each child a carton, a half carton of milk, and paper to tear.  On the table, we put small amounts of liquid paste on plastic plates.  There was a logistical problem because of so many children crowded around small tables.  The milk cartons were pasted to the carton base using strips of paper spread with paste.  For some reason, both the children and Huda recoiled from tearing the paper by hand and becoming dirty from the paste.  Also, from lack of experience, some of the children, using the  “tongue depressors”,  put far too much paste on the strips of paper (at least, the children no longer cry when we bring them out).
2. Next step: The pasting of windows and doors that Huda had cut out ahead of time from colorful construction paper that we brought with us on the previous visit.  The original plan was that each child would go to Muhammad and choose the pieces that he/she decided to paste – with the idea of reducing the automatic pasting and drawing we saw during our previous workshops- but because of the crowdedness of the preschool, it was impossible to do so.  Instead, we went from table to table and each child, more or less, chose pieces.
3. Next step: the children chose pictures of people and animals to cut, paint, and paste onto the doors and windows.  Again we moved from table to table allowing the children to choose.  It became clear that the tasks were too many for these children.  Most of the children only pasted (with too much paste).
4. Next step: paint the area around the house, paste sand (we brought in from outside) on the carton base, and paste wonderful decorations (sparkling stickers, pompons) that we left until the end.

At the end of the activity, Huda pasted a reward sticker (“kol hakavod - good work” or its equivalent in Arabic) on each child after saying a few words about the good work the child had done.  The children held up their work for all of us to see and admire (see the photos).

            The children took their projects home.  They were very pleased and proud of their work. 

                               The construction of building which will house the preschool is progressing (see the photos).  The construction is being funded by UNWRA.

Photographs of the workshop (Muhammad) – album of December 30:

https://picasaweb.google.com/115469912026094971633?authkey=Gv1sRgCPzNi8HWpLaXzgE

“Staff” meeting:

According to our established routine, after the children have left for home, we sit, drink coffee – a courtesy of Muhammad, eat cookies, and discuss what we have learned from the day’s activity.  As usual, we are quite excited at the end of each workshop.  Our impression was that the activity was a little more complicated than usual, but was still appropriate for most of the children. It is good occasionally to do an activity that the children find challenging.  The most important thing – the children enjoyed it.

           The next workshop: Thursday 12/1/2012.  The workshop topic: vegetables and fruit.  It will include the reading of the book on the king of fruit, a discussion, and eating of fruit and vegetables, and the classification of cutouts of fruit and vegetables and the pasting of these cutouts on pictures of fruit and vegetables, and the coloring of the picture.        

Our summary: Continuedsatisfaction from the activities. A feeling that our perseverance has created trusting and close relationships.

Trans. by Jenny L.

It's raining

The vineyards are leafless

The occupation continues.

Because of the foggy weather and the Channukah holiday, life around here gets off to a late start. The flow of vehicles is very light and even the people are barely visible. We asked Simya inhabitants how they were getting on as we had heard of the intention to demolish buildings there. "So far, no," they tell us. We'll keep in touch.

The IDF bulldozers are working. Here, they are gathering asphalt shavings, which they'll use to "occupy" some area. There, next to the road to Negohot they are preparing a new firing range. The path to the outpost on top of the hill above us is still muddy. The time's not yet ripe to pave it. Only vehicles with front wheel drive can make the ascent. The soldiers are freezing but politely answer our questions.

Hebron

Dozing. We're pleased to see that the posters that a settler pasted up a week week ago along the road leading down from Tel Romeida and along Shuheda Street have been removed. Has someone decided to make things here a little more orderly? Now no-one will know of the historical right that settlers claim for this place and of the injustice that Israeli laws have perpetrated on them. Would that it were so? Until the next time.

We decided to go and buy the excellent pita bread, which has no parallel elsewhere. One has to cross H2, The Pharmacy checkpoint, to walk 50 meters to the bakery. There have been occasions when soldiers understood that we were not endangering "peace" in the area and allowed us to pass. Not today. "It's dangerous," they said, "and if anything happens to you we would be held responsible." Nevertheless they call their superiors to ask permission to let us through. A female soldier's voice can be heard: "[Machsom]Watch women? Give them a kick in the ass and get them out'a here," she shouts. The soldier, who is more embarrassed than we are when he realises we have heard what she said, mutters something about the mood she's in this morning and goes. We do too. The "righteous" soon have their work done by others. Local people returning from the bakery willingly sell us the pitas they had bought and go back to buy more for themselves.

There are no delays at the checkpoints; nothing special happened. We can leave town. Terhe's also very little IDF presence along the road in the direction of Shayuch. We headed for home on route 356. We saw nothing new there either.

How wonderful!""