Morning shift in Farsiya

 We are present around the clock to protect the shepherds.  The children are in school and two toddlers spent a fun morning  with us together with two Palestinian shepherds.  A settler whose job it was to harass, frighten people as much as possible, and to show his presence arrived to begin his shift in his car from the settlement above, looked out from the east,  and drove westward along the hilltop.    We sat in a tent and watched him while the children shouted “want some coffee?  Want something to eat?  Come on down!”  as I directed them to do.    He knows that soon our shift will end and there will be no Israeli car present, and we know that he knows this.  There were more violent incidents committed by settlers in other places in the valley, but luckily  it has been quiet in Farsiya during the last week.

It was an extremely hot day and we moved from one shady spot to another.  I had brought some games and the children kept busy and happy with them for several hours.

The biggest problem is the lack of fields of oats and wheat for grazing.    All the places are forbidden for the shepherds to enter.   While driving along the Alon Route 578  we saw fields full of dry grass on both sides of the road that could feed all the Palestinians’ flocks, but they are forbidden from going there.    It is truly discouraging.  I don’t understand how the Palestinians retain their calm  and how they refrain from shouting and cursing the Jews.    Where is the law when it is needed?   Who needs the courts who do not do their job?

Michael Sfarad (an Israeli human rights lawyer) was correct when he said in the legal panel the next day that we need to preserve the courts as one entity out of three and not protect the judges.