There are plenty of reasons to demolished Palestinian homes, and the most prevalent is building without permits. The Palestinians apply for a construction permit, pay the fee, wait for a year and a half, and finally receive a negative answer.  Since 1967, less than a single percent of all applications for such permits in the occupied territories have been authorized!

For variety’s sake, there are more creative and varied reasons to demolish Palestinian homes. The most common right now if the claim that the desired place of construction is an archeological site!  Not just the site itself, but a vast area around it is declared an archeological polygon.

We brought two archeology professors – Prof. Gideon Sulimani and Prof. Rafi Greenberg – to check whether construction in archeological sites is indeed there, and if this has anything to do with construction and living. The professors’ conclusion was that the houses and animal pens are indeed next to an archeological site, but not directly on it.  Therefore, there is no reason not to built there, for it is light construction, and especially having been decades ago and the harm to the existence of Palestinians is much more grave than some harm for a nearby site. There is no truth in that vast polygon drawn by the archeology officer of the Civil Administration, a colonist with his own interests at hand. Moreover: this is only an excuse to demolish private property in order to expel and dispossess the families living in the area.

Next to the Tapuach Junction we saw a sign in Arabic meant for Palestinians: “There is no future in Palestine”.

The family whose guests we were shared its beautiful breakfast with us – an herb omelette, fried sheep cheese, eggplant, peppers and a spicy vegetable salad.

On our way back I ran into Jewish terrorist Moshe Sharvit, who identified me and decided to chase me. He drove past me and slowed down in order for us to stop suddenly and smash into him. Thus several times, which forced me to drive more and more slowly in order to avoid an accident. There were another young man and two toddlers in the car with him, which did not keep him from risking an accident as long as he endangers me too. For about 20 kilometers he bothered me this way, until I managed to bypass him and continue without him.