Again, as in nearly every Saturday lately: the day began peacefully, with warm nice weather. 2 accompaniers went with shepherd N. close to Hamra and stayed with him until 2 p.m.

Two women volunteers went to graze with F. and S. and the girls from Ein Al Hilwa. They crossed over with their two flocks and grazed for about 6 hours. No colonists were seen and grazing went well, unhampered.

At Al Farisiya two accompaniers remained for protective presence, also no special events.

But there is not a single quiet day in the Palestinian Jordan Valley – because of the checkpoints and the colonists.

We were supposed to accompany the plowing of Samra villagers. We were promised that the tractor and its driver would arrive at 8L30 a.m. When we arrived at the encampment, we met A. who told us that the tractor and driver did not come and that he could not reach by phone the person from the PA responsible. After many calls it appeared the tractor is at the driver’s neighbor and can come. But the driver with the barley is stuck at Hamra Checkpoint. This delay lasted until 2 p.m. and the owners of the land gave up their plans to plow that day. The loss of freedom of movement causes loss of work hours and livelihood as well as sheep feed loss – and these are only a few of the harm caused by the renewed checkpoints.

In the meantime, waiting at Samra for a decision about the plowing, we received a call for help from I.: a wandering donkey belonging to the colonists has been seen on his land and he is afraid that this is a trap set for him by those colonists, so they could accuse him of stealing the donkey, and take their revenge.  Consulting each other in the group, we decided not to call the police as it would not sort this out, but rather call the Jordan Valley hotline, which takes care of Valley residents’ problems. This proved to be a very acute mistake. The woman at the hotline sounded nice and promised to help find the owner of the donkey who would take it back. However, things appeared to run differently and there is full cooperation between the colonists and this hotline, which should be just police proper.

About 20 minutes later, a colonist car showed up at I.’s with five youths ages 16-20. One of them was armed. They began threatening I. and his sons and family. “Where is the donkey? Where are you hiding it? We have not seen it on the ground! If we don’t find it, we’ll take your own donkey”. Youths were threatening people who are the age of their parents and grandparents…

The colonists’ car left and I. urged us to find the donkey, tie it up and show that he has not got it. He knows the colonists are able to act upon their threats. We rode the volunteer’s car with I. and his sons, and indeed found the donkey and tied it to a road sign, and took its picture.

But the colonists never left. They came in their car and yelled that I. had hid the donkey and invented the story. At this point they began to push and beat up Palestinians. I photographed and one of them grabbed my phone and threw it about 20 meters away. A minute later he smashed it to pieces so I wouldn’t get it back. At that time the accompaniers came in as a buffer between the colonist youths and the Palestinians. The youths, in their amok, beat the accompaniers too and kicked our car. The owner decided to leave quickly with the Palestinians because he was afraid that the incident would get even more serious, with dire beatings. We hurried to get the Palestinians home, and wanted to get the broken phone for the SIM that contains the information about the group. We got to the phone and immediately the colonist youths were there again for the third time. This time they changed their story and accused us of coming to steal their cattle that was grazing there. With this alibi they began to attack us too, easily. We got away and did not return to I.’s encampment because the thugs blocked our way. We took off in the opposite direction and called the police.

The police found no time to come, said they had other, more important things to take care of. We received another call from I. – the army and police and standby guys and the youths were at his place again.

We drive there quickly and indeed found the whole world there! The youths already accused I.’s two sons of attacking, the army – with the standby guys of the Valley as soldiers headed by Shai Eigner – sat the two on the side. Another army unit played the objective part and took testimonies from both sides, as it were. Asael, owner of the outpost, stood there to write down what we said, and later we appeared on their websites and were accused there of calling the hotline to lay a trap for the youths and beat them up…

Half an hour later, other accompaniers arrived to help. The police wrote down all the times they arrived as part of the event.

30 minutes later, the army took the two Palestinians who were arrested. That is what is the norm in Israel today – the only version accepted as true is that of the colonists. The two were passed on to the police, and we called the foundation for human rights to help them. The colonists arrived at Binyamin police station and accused the Palestinians of attacking them. The foundation called and directed the detainees and the accompaniers, who were present at all the proceedings and then drove to the Binyamin police to lodge a complaint about the attack, versus the false claim of the colonist youths.

The interrogator woman must have been in a good mood that day, and perhaps the colonist version was completely punctured. The Palestinians were released at 22:00 with very little bail. We returned to sleep at I.’s.

That day was not a peaceful one in the Jordan Valley. At 7 p.m. there was a call from Ein al Hilwa – colonists were throwing stones. The accompaniers left in the valley arrived and the stone throwing ceased. The colonists built a campfire on the opposite hill.

At night, two army vehicles passed at I.’s twice (at 8 p.m. and at 2 a.m.) and confiscated torches. They said these blind the cars on the Jordan Valley road. Another colonist invention, that the Palestinians light their torches at the sheep pens when the dogs bark, perhaps because of colonists coming to steal sheep. At any rate, the strong light of the torches does not even reach the road. I. says that the colonists are the ones who call the army to complain. They do not want anyone to see them sneaking in to steal sheep.

At I.’s request, the night shift came to him and to Farisiya for protective presence. The night passed quietly in both places.

And these days, pipes and construction material was seen not far from I.’s locality. Clear signs of the birth of yet another new outpost…

No God around. Not a dull moment in the Palestinian Jordan Valley.