JUBARA-HARIS JUNCTION, Saturday 1 May 2004 AM Observers : Nurit, Adina, Tamar A., Dalia S. color =red> 11:15 We had almost reached Taibeh when we received a call from D. telling us that she had heard from members of the International Women’s Peace Service that there were several military jeeps at the entrance to Haris, the village where they live . The IWPS women added that there was a great deal of tension in the village following the shooting dead of a young local man there on Thursday night. D. suggested that we should go to the village and see exactly what was happening, and that is what we did. There was only one jeep remaining at the entrance to the village by the time we got there. It was rumoured that the earlier heavy military presence had been relieved following talks between the head of the local District Coordinating Office (DCO) [the section of the army that deals with civilian matters] and his Palestinian counterpart, Abu-Rabia.At the entrance to the village we also found two IWPS women and a few residents. Everybody seemed shocked by the death of the young man who, according to villagers who were present, had simply bent over to pick up something and had then been shot , because the soldiers are said to have thought he was about to throw a stone. The villagers said that for the last several days, and following the removal of the road block at the entrance to the village, they had seen a massive military presence in the area. . At night, they hear shooting, and everybody was very anxious. They also told us about settlers who come in and shoot and throw stones. We went up to the soldiers to try to find out whether there was any foundation to the feeling in the village that the army was about to come in. . We met a group of reservists commanded by captain D. who began by telling us that when he is in uniform he simply follows orders. He said that the shooting had been in reaction to a stone that had been thrown at a bus or a civilian (settler ) car . His version was a bit vague and it seemed to us that somewhere inside himself he was well aware that this had been a needless death. He added that the army had seen weapons in the village (a gun and a pistol) and that as long as there were weapons there, the army would continue to monitor the situation and might indeed enter the village “in half an hour, tonight, tomorrow, whenever we want to!” He agreed that 99.9 per cent of the villagers were innocent people who just want to work and live quietly. But, he continued, they were also quite right to feel anxious since as long as some of them shoot and throw stones the army would react , as its goal was to protect the civilians. We continued to talk to them for a while, trying to point out the fallacy of the whole situation: for, as long as the army is threatening the village, it is only reasonable for the level of resistance there to rise. They countered that with the argument that we keep hearing : we , too, are also wives and mothers of soldiers and therefore should understand that their duty is to protect civilians…We went back to the villagers — passers by, men, women and children and a group of young men who stopped to chat with us. Among them was a cousin of the young man who had been killed. He was very distressed, worked up and in deep mourning. But he was also angry and, as if echoing the soldiers` words, he told us that our sons and husbands are also soldiers and that all Jews should be killed (and some more cutting and hurtful remarks). We talked to some other people. The level of frustration and rage seemed to be running very high and the men swore that they would make the soldiers` lives very tough should they indeed invade the village.13:45 –We left after urging the villagers and the IWPS women to look after themselves, since we felt there was going to be some violent conflict. D. rang again and said she was on her way to Haris, adding that this village had now joined the ranks of others in the army seems to want to create tension.