Mohammad reports that colonists cut down Palestinians’ olive trees. H. and N. of the eastern part of Susya lead me out to see the damage done. I took photos of the cut-down trees. Before the war Palestinians tended their fields including the wadi that separates the village and the colony. Today they are not allowed to get there. I also took photos of the bones of animals. H. explains that these were sheep devoured by the colony’s dogs. The Palestinians’ dogs are always tied up. We walked around the fence erected by the colonists two years ago around a tended Palestinian area, instead of the old fence.

H. shows me the gate that was destroyed by the colonists’ bulldozer – namely, they are also prevented from tending the fenced-in area. H. speaks Hebrew, used to work in Israel, and now he hardly makes a living transporting and plowing for Palestinians when the chance and money to pay him are available.

M. brings H. pots, for colonists who attacked her home destroyed her cooking pots as well. I also bought a bottle of last year’s olive oil from her. We see sacks of olives that were harvested quickly and will be immediately brought to the oil press at Yatta, before the colonists manage to steal them.

Now for a visit at W. and A. in the western part of the village. I bought a jerry-can of last year’s olive oil from them. Mohammad brings clothes and toys to families in this neighborhood.

A. reports: the colonists throw out dead calves and dogs as well as piles of garbage near their homes. On Friday night, colonists set afire a home, and the volunteers’ car. He wonders what the future holds for these young colonists. Will they become a criminal gang? Then he tells us about the policeman who turned off his body camera in order to tell him that in spite of top-down police instructions to act against this violence, they do nothing of the kind because of the colonists’ pressure, even if they disagree. Once, when colonists threatened A. with a knife, police were summoned and arrived and one of attackers escaped. The policeman caught the second one but only confiscated his knife and released him. He suggested that A. lodge a complaint, and even told him, “Don’t compare me to other policemen”. A. asked him, “If this were a Palestinian, would you be satisfied with only confiscating his knife?”

A. tells of the Israelis who come to him, one bringing the other, already numbering about 12, and call him Baba – daddy – which is a great honor. Now he rolls a cigarette from tobacco he grows and dries himself. He says that he was once stopped at Tarqumiah Checkpoint, held in a room. After they covered the cameras, they searched him and found the tobacco pack. They wouldn’t believe him that this is really tobacco until a Bedouin soldier arrived and affirmed this.

A UN vehicle as well as a Red Cross vehicle arrive – Physicians Without Borders – to visit N. They explain that this is UNOCHA, initials that stand for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, with their head office in East Jerusalem. An American official is visiting Susya for the first time, as well as the woman who heads the office in Hebron, an East Jerusalem Palestinian. It is unclear whether they have any influence on what really goes on here.