Highway 505 from Ariel is taking on the scale of an expressway. It could also become a barrier dividing the northern and southern West Bank. It would be easy to separate the two parts, creating two distinct areas, and eventually four if Highway 60 also becomes a barrier dividing east from west.

The whole area is full of excavation equipment, paving materials and houses mounted on enormous trucks. A hive of activity.

Samra welcomed us with delicious coffee. Things were quiet there. We brought a sack of clothes, which was given to the man who takes their milk to sell. He told us that he had worked in Israel for many years as a restaurant cook and had made excellent connections. It was a good period in his life. Now he barely makes a living transporting goods from place to place.

We thoroughly cleaned one family’s kitchen, then moved on to the other family.

It was a day of creative activities: drawing, board games and passages recited from the Quran with tajwid (تَجْوِيد). One of the boys recited beautifully, and it turned into a family competition over who could recite the surah of Zakariya most pleasingly to Israeli ears. Then they sat down to roll grape leaves (dawali) for lunch.

No settlers disturbed us. Later, there was a report of violence in Hamra involving Moshe Sharvit and his youths.

We then went to Khalet Makhul to visit friends. Settler activity is beginning there: fence building and harassment of the flocks. The people involved are the same Uri who built the farm near the Umm Zuka military base, and a new settler who built an outpost near Hadidiya—each with his youths. They are making life miserable for the residents.