Saturday, 7:30 a.m.
We split up and went in different directions. Natalie and another escort went immediately to accompany A since no problems were expected on Shabbat. The grazing did indeed pass peacefully all the time and ended at 11:30.
Two other volunteers went to El Mayteh. In recent weeks, settlers from the area of Tayasir have been harassing the Palestinians there violently every day. They scatter their flock and, in the past, have driven them away and even broken the cameras installed there. In the past two weeks they have been there every day. This time they were seen moving closer but they left when they saw the escorts.
I went with one other escort to Hammam al-Malih. About six months ago, a settlement was established opposite the village. A herd of cattle has recently arrived there and the settlers graze the cows near to the Palestinian shepherds’ homes, sometimes with a settler on an ATV. They come right up to the doorways of the houses and frighten the families.
One of the shepherds decided to take advantage of the cool, but sunny, weather and went to a nearby pasture, 20 minutes from his home. International volunteers stayed with the homes of the families as a protective presence. The grazing lasted about three hours without interruption, but it turns out that while we were there, three settlers came up to the door of his home and harassed the women. We didn’t have phone reception at the pasture, but they were able to reach the escorts at Mayteh, who got there quickly. The settlers apparently left without going into the homes.

Six months ago, an outpost was established near El-Hadidiya, by violent settlers who harass the residents every day. Two escorts drove there and at 12:00, one of the shepherds from somewhere else came to tell them that his grazing partner had been arrested by the army with his son and he asked them to go there. The escorts drove to the place, which was blocked by mud, and at that moment, soldiers appeared and asked them to explain what they were doing. The escorts said they’d come to collect the shepherd and were told by the woman soldier that they were forbidden to be there because it was a closed military area. The escorts explained to them that there was no such thing without an order from the brigade commander, so the soldiers changed their version and said it was a firing range. And when they were told there’s no firing on Shabbat, they said that a military unit was practicing there and demanded that the escorts leave or they would be arrested.
The escorts were undecided but right at that moment, they received a message that settlers were inside the homes in El-Hadidiya and they should come back quickly. When they arrived, the settlers were no longer there, but they’d had time to move around inside the houses and even cut the cable of a combine harvester and render it unusable.
The residents wondered whether to call the police and decided there was no point. The police would simply blame them instead of the settlers. In the meantime, they received a message that the shepherd had been released and asking for him to be picked up from detention. The escorts drove to collect him and his son.
At 2:00 p.m., a band of eight youths aged 16-18 and two kids aged around 8-10 from Maskiyot were seen going down to Ein al-Hilwe and when they arrived, they hassled the family of shepherds near the bridge. They went into the house, wandered about between the rooms, sat down on the chairs and moved the family and escorts. The escorts called the police, who didn’t come because they said they didn’t have the manpower. The youths stopped bothering the first family and moved on to harass the family in the second encampment, and from there to the third and fourth.
The military security coordinator, who’d been sent by the police, arrived and the youths gave up and went back to Maskiyot.

At night, the night shift replaced us and we went home.