I’ of Khalat Makhoul, his wife and children are all proud people. They all work hard and do not bend in front of the cruel occupier. Their insistence on their human image and their mighty stance in face of cruel colonists, and an army all of whose rules and deeds do not answer to any international law criterion (yes, this exists!) or human morality costs them the dearest of prices – their liberty. Several years ago, N. was arrested with her 3-months-old baby daughter and was held at the Binyamin Police Station until past midnight. The baby daughter was taken from her and passed over to activists who did not know how to pacify a baby who screams with cold and hunger, forced away from her mother. But that was the past.

Now: The son H., 18-years-old, a shepherd, was arrested half a year ago for no reason, and released by a judge’s ruling. However, at the Shabak’s insistence upon its strongest card he was detained administratively. First for four months, and then another four! His mother was broken and became a shadow of her former self. Then – four days ago, the father was arrested with a filthy trick: first they arrested the 16-year-old son, and when the father came to free him, the father himself was arrested and not released to this day. Anyone with their eyes not shut tight knows that Israeli “security” prisons have become torture camps, centers of disease and starvation, “stalags”.

I have known the family for 20 years and can vouch for both son and father. They are simple shepherds but determined facing occupation, and do not kowtow to it. Obviously, neither of them has broken any rules. Everything is done to break the most determined shepherd, so that all the other shepherds would fear and tremble! Not only violent colonists are the criminals – the whole country is at fault by helping those criminal colonists in empty arrests of Palestinians, demolishing their homes, denying them livelihood and medical treatment, checkpoints and any other backing of the colonists. This is not colonist terror – this is terror committed by all of the State of Israel!

The photo of T. mourning her Fasail home’s rubble has nothing to do with the family I just described above. It is only an example of this full collaboration of colonists and the State of Israel’s Civil Administration.

Earlier we spent F. and M., protecting then from the arch-colonist Moshe Sharvit and his boys. It was a quiet morning, a nice breeze was blowing, and we were having a conversation with the local women. There were no special events except for a drone flying over our heads. The old grandfather lay nearby on his bed. Toward noon, he said to his daughter “I’m hungry” and she brought him dry bread, apologized saying “our fridge is empty”. Since they are not allowed to graze their flock, nor tend their fields, many families are famished. Real starvation. We decided to bring them food for several days when we come on Thursday.

I went to the toilet and was amazed – I have never seen a toilet so clean. We noticed that every time someone came out of there, one of the women would enter the clean the place.

According to the women, the checkpoint is opened at 13.00 until 16:00 but sometimes it is not, and even when opened, passage is slow and the waiting lines long. The children study only three days a week, for the teachers get no pay for the rest of the time, and the children must cross the checkpoint to walk to school, about three kilometers. Last week the checkpoint was not opened because of a Jewish holiday, and the children were stuck on the other side. Hagar drove there and managed to get them out bring them home.

We went to the checkpoint at 13:00 but could not get to it. Dozens of cars stood on the road in pairs and threes, and one could not get through. There were over 100 cars. People crowded among them smoking, chatting, and mostly watching the head of the line to see whether cars would begin to get through. We decided to get out of there but it was too crowded to turn around, until one of the drivers came out and began to move the cars and a small open space was created through which we managed to turn around somehow.

We drove to Jiftlik, to the Ka’abana family, the parents of 5-years-old Ayisha who was born paralyzed from the waist down. We plan to bring her to the Alin Hospital in Jerusalem in 3 weeks, for examination and instructions. The sweet child took out her pencils and drawing album from the school bag we brought her last time and showed us her work. I spoke with her grandmother, who is supposed to accompany her, but is afraid of crossing a checkpoint manned by armed Arab-haters, so I promised to accompany her. Out previous attempt to get to Alin failed for they were not permitted to cross over to Jerusalem in spite of all the permissions they had. Here’s hope we manage it this time. The child needs urgent medication because of the state of her leg bones.