The 24 hours of the Saturday shift surprised us. It was a quiet day without any alarming events. But this was a delusion. The shepherds no longer dare go far for fear that something might happen, get far from their families even at the cost of their livelihood.

We got there at 6 a.m. Teams accompanied S. from Al-Farisiya in a field he leased from an Ein al-Beida that has stubble left after the harvest, as well as corn stubble.

The sheep joyfully ate up anything growing in the fields and enjoyed drinking water from the irrigation pipe that remains in the field. The team that was finished then went to F. at Ein al-Beida to help him go down and water the cattle at the spring. Unfortunately, after several threats warning F. not to dare graze his cattle in the hills, he no longer grazes far from home but waters his cattle twice a day at the spring.

Al-Farisiya shepherds, too, graze unhampered in the fields of Ein a-sakut, and then the team remained in the shade with the shepherds. One of the accompaniers brought the food from Al-Farisiya which the women had prepared for the shepherds, and everyone enjoyed the meal and lay down to rest in the shade with the breeze until 3 p.m.

At 3 p.m. the afternoon shift arrived and accompanied S. to graze in his fields until 6 p.m.

At Ein a-sakut shepherds asked us to continue spending time with them as protective presence in the shade, while they milked the sheep and then took them out to graze at the local greenhouses, and eat the rest of the weeds growing there – tomato and cucumber leaves and all the rest. The female accompaniers were asked to keep their eye on the ten 1-week-old kids that remained in the pen, for a day earlier 10 colonists – about 20-years-old – threatened to break the hands of the shepherds if they stay there.

This Saturday went unhampered, and at 6 p.m. the sheep returned to drink. One of the shepherds brought the shepherds food prepared by their wives at Al-Farisiya and everyone sat down to eat at 7 p.m.  Two accompaniers remained to spend the night.

At Ein al Hilwe, too, we were surprised. Only 3 boys in white shirts came down from Maskiyot settlement  but they walked around the encampments and didn’t enter, only sat down for a short while in the shed they erected over Q.’s place and then left for home, no harassment.

At Al-Farisiya, too, the day passed unhampered, without threats unlike the earlier day when Amosi, the settler, reportedly entered homes and turned over tables and chairs.

The night shift that arrived also had a quiet night without disturbances, along with the rest of the local inhabitants and shepherds of the Palestinian Jordan Valley.

We left early morning on Sunday (July 6^th) and were glad to have gotten a quiet day.

Apparently, the extraordinary attests to the ordinary:

According to the team that accompanied the morning grazing session, 2 settlers waited for the shepherds under the fence they cross on their way to the stubble fields, and threatened them not to dare go further. The shepherds returned to the corralled area. The police were summoned, the policeman came and indeed scolded the 2 settlers, but the shepherds refused and returned to their encampment at Ein a-sakut, unable to believe that when the policeman left the settlers wouldn’t harass them again.

And indeed, an hour later the security official of Rotem settlement appeared and notified them that the shepherds must not come out to the corn stubble fields, and added that he intends to bring his own sheep and cattle to these fields to fill the place of the Palestinian shepherds. All this in spite of the fact that he must not graze there without their permission because this is privately-owned Palestinian land – but the lords of the land know no boundaries. Occupation continues full blast with breaks that give the illusion of coming back to sane normality. Sad!