Palestinian in the Occupied West Bank live with daily terror. Night and day they lift their eyes with great fear towards the hills surrounding the village and the entrance path to it, ready to run and hide if one of the criminals shows up.

Beqa’ot Checkpoint – a short waiting line of cars drags its way from east to west. In hindsight apparently all checkpoints were closed at this time because of an Israeli military operation in Tammun and Tubbas. 5 Palestinians were annihilated. Inhabitants of the northern Palestinian Jordan Valley complained that food had not reached them, and the meager milk in this season could not be sold at Tubbas.

Al Farisiya – we arrived for a protective presence vigil at 2:15 p.m. A pickup truck was seen in the center of the village belonging to the regional council with Shai – who works in that council – inside and another person. They made the rounds of the village and turned toward the isolated home of Ahmad, where his wife, mother and two babies were at present. We followed. He did not stop and continued to the home of Kharir who is not there, having moved to Tubbas for the summer. We followed. He turned and left. Our activist friends at Ein a-Sakut (where the men graze the flocks in the summertime) said that the same Shai came there, made his intimidation round and left.

There are about 10 geese (that Dan brought as chicks) who serve as guards and react screaming at anyone coming close. They bite, too! They and the Protective Presence vigils do not totally prevent settlers attacks but they do lower violence levels. The villagers believe our presence prevents their own expulsion, which is a lot…

At 6:20 p.m. a pickup truck arrived with Rotem security official,  Danieli and his wife, to the northern hill, bearing a huge Israel flag. We followed them up the hill to see what they were doing. The pickup truck turned west toward Rotem settlement. Danieli stopped and came out holding a cell phone. Within minutes an ATV came speeding with 5 hill youths, slovenly, their side-curls flying. They came up through the village to Danieli, hugged him and may have received their orders from him. 4 of them immediately ran down to the village. Ben and I could not stop them. Only Gil’ad, son of Colonist Didi remained with the ATV. The pogromists entered yards, peeped into homes (empty as the women and children who were there without the men ran to hide) and returned to their ATV. After 10 minutes the entire gang left. The village men were at Ein a-Sakut – perhaps this prevented a violent confrontation. A few days ago, Gil’ad, the settler, stabbed volunteer Yuval as well as Ahmad.

We summoned the police who arrive about half an hour after the settlers had left. The policemen wrote down all the details given by the Haj and recommended that he lodge a complaint at the Binyamin police station. That’s it. Nothing done, nor will be. Tomorrow they will set fire to Jit, and nothing will be done there either.

Families and inhabitants of Ein Samia, Ras, Kabun, Ein Rashash, Hamra and many others have been expelled from their own land and homes this past year. They were forced to sell their flocks and find refuge in the large villages or crowded cities of Areas A and B. A week ago, the settlers erected a new outpost at Umm Jamal at the Ein Al Hilwa junction. Immediately they expelled the families living there. Two days ago, inhabitants (charming old friends of mine) took apart their tents and homes and left. 10 families, over 100 persons, were violently displaced and have to find a new place for themselves.

The pogromists serve the purposes of Israel’s government, which does not hide its annexation aspirations, the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians living in the Occupied Territories.