7:30 a.m. We split up as soon as we got there.
In Al-Farisiya the accompaniers joined two shepherd groups for harvest the remains of edible corn for the sheep, 8 a.m.-12 noon.

At Ein al-Hilwa two women accompaniers joined shepherdess Z. to a hill growing fresh grass near her house. Grazing was peaceful, not granted these days.

Sarah and a new accompanier who joined lately drove to Al-Hadidiya, a Palestinian locality numbering about 10 families. Months ago, a settler outpost was erected there and is inhabited by young, violent settlers. Its fence passes through the Palestinian locality, and the settlers do not enable the shepherds to graze. Some of the shepherds are forced to feed the animals very expensive barley and their money is running out. Others still try grazing, hoping this would pass without clashing with army and police. This Saturday they managed and grazing was peaceful.

The next half day was difficult.

At 12 noon, I and another accompanier got a call from I. who was out plowing his privately-owned field (officially) near Hemdat Settlement. He said that three settlers came and sprayed him and his sons with teargas and asked for urgent help.
We got there in 15 minutes, on an intense, stony dirt track. From afar we could see the Palestinian tractors and the army and police forces. We walked last 100 meters. The tractors were still, and near the police van sat the two shepherd’s sons, shackled. Women soldiers collected the IDs of all the plowing Palestinians. The settlers, about 18-20 years old, peacocked around. We tried to understand what was happening, for the Palestinian farmer asked us to free his sons. We went to the masked women-soldiers and asked what had happened but they ignored us completely. Only one of them yelled: “Off with you!” and added swear words. The policeman yelled at us that since we are neither GSS (“Shabak”) nor police, only family friends, he would not report us. The farmer insisted on asking why they were arrested, and the policeman yelled that he was plowing a closed military zone and is prohibited to do so even on the Sabbath. The official ownership document was not signed, he said, and is therefore illegal.

The farmer complained – why was the policeman not arresting the settler who had pepper-sprayed them, only his two sons? The policeman answered that the sons threw stones, and he has it on video. He also demanded that the father show him a video proving they had sprayed them.
He was not willing at all to listen to the farmer, whereas he took the settlers’ testimony for over 20 friendly minutes, as they leaned on his car door. The Palestinian boys on the other hand were demanded to take off their shoes in order to find something or just to humiliate them, and they were blindfolded (?).
About an hour later, the younger son (15 years old) was loaded on the police van shackled hands and feet – which is apparently not allowed – and taken to the police station at Ma’ale Adumim. The older son (19 years old) was taken there in an army vehicle. We notified the Foundation for Human Rights so they would supply the sons with legal representation. They were detained until Monday at the Ma’ale Adumim police station and then let go on bail until their trial, in which the Settlers’ version would fight the version of the sons and their father and the other Palestinians plowing.

At 2:30 p.m. we were summoned to Ein al-Hilwa. This Saturday, three Settler boys came down from Maskiyot settlement to the Palestinian residents’ houses. The settlers first entered the yard of the farmer living near the bridge under the Allon Road. They had the entire family in a tizzy as well as all of us accompaniers, running from place to place. They tried to enter the rooms as well as the sheep pen. We all tried to prevent them from entering the rooms and spoke to them nicely, but nothing helped. They simply enjoyed harassing the Palestinians.
We called the police but it was not ready to send a van. Instead, Maskiyot settlement’s security official came and claimed that the settlers were permitted to go around the houses and could be stopped only if they attack. The settler boys decided to vary their actions and passed over to the family living opposite. They must have punched the daughter in the belly for she sat crumpled up and crying out of pain. As expected, the father decided not to turn to the police, that would be hopeless. They would wait until the settler boys would get tired and go back home.

The night passed quietly in all parts of the Palestinian Jordan Valley, and there were vain arrests again the next day – an unfinished saga.