We left with a car loaded and packed with things collected by Semadar and a friend from Kibbutz Elon.

Muhammad and Ariela, as usual lately very full. Hope this indicates that people are making a living.

Last Monday, on July 26, Fais called Muhammad. He istol head of the Zenuta Council, and said that the day before, the army had arrived in Zanuta to photograph houses that had received demolition orders three months ago.

We went to visit Omar at Maktal Umm-Salem,who a few weeks ago had three tents confiscated from him. Nada and Yasser, two of his children ran towards us with great joy and helped us unload some of the things we brought them. As usual, the great joy is with the toys. Omar’s wife again told a story about a skimmer that the settlers raise to keep track of what is happening in their territory and therefore they do not dare to set up a new tent.

On the way to A-Tuwani, to meet Nava and her friends, who had  came to stay there for a few days to accompany the shepherds and protect them from the thugs of the Havat Maon, we stopped at Abu Safi. Abu Safi has run out of fuel for his tractor. He told us that he  could not fetch water, because even the donkey he had was dead and he did not have a 4×4 vehicle. We drove to get some jerrycans and bring fuel to the tractor so he could get water.

We unloaded the rest of the equipment that was in the car and here too the great joy was with the toys. Lucky that a child remains a child even in these impossible conditions. Abu Safi’s young daughters were happy with the Lego and glasses we brought.

We met people from the Palestinian Ministry of the Environment who came to check how the family is doing in the difficult conditions, especially this year, after the dry winter. Already last time Abu Safi told me that this year he grows vegetables only for self-consumption because of the great shortage of water. In a conversation with one of the people from the PA, we talked about the water problem in the territories and he told me that they had written a report on the subject. I very much hope that we can raise and spread the issue of water in the occupied territories.

We continued with the jerricans to A-Tuwani to meet Nava. We met Vanessa and Gali, two young students and Naomi, a friend of Nava who together go out to accompany shepherds in the Jordan Valley and this time came to the southern Hebron Mountains. That morning some people from the village went out to measure their private lands, to mark the areas between the families, and our “pleasant”  settlers from Havat Maon went down to them and also called the police. Nava and her friends are staying with Basel and in the morning Basel’s mother gives them Arabic lessons along with breakfast. A wonderful idea for an Arabic course.

On a A-Tuwani  road, we came across a young, fenced-in vineyard, another settler takeover of private Palestinian land “acre by acre”.  It’s the only green color we’ve seen in all the gray shades of brown along the way.

We returned to Abu Safi with the jerrycans full of diesel so he could take  the tractor to fetch water. The so-called back-to-back way of doing things.