We drove to Umm al Khair to hear and see their growing struggle with a new colony actually adjacent to their fence. We met people with whom our friends are connected by studies, and passed a donation through them.

When we got to Sa’ir-Halhul turnoff we saw cranes and tractors on the hill, where a colony has been situated since 2020, named Merom Yehuda. Apparently, it has been undergoing development and expansion works. We shall pursue this further.

Mohammad heard from people in Dhahariya that their locality, closed off on October 7^th, 2023, has begun to open up.

The entrance below Atniel colony is opened for 4 hours beginning at 12 noon. The promise is that passage will be completely opened if no problems arise. The residents of Atniel had protested and still do, but for the time being this is the state of things.

The entrance to Samu’a is entirely opened.

We purchase coffee, tea, sugar and goodies for adults and children of the Umm al Khair community center. The activists there were very glad, as they had had none of these products. They wished to update us about the football field they prepared for the children next to the community center, as well as about the new colonist caravans that choke them in a close strangle hold. Now they are also surrounded by Israeli flags. A. meets us and shows me an order prohibiting use of the football field and a demand to present the DCO with a master plan for the field until February 25^th. Only if this master plan is approved will the field be spared demolition.

We went again to see the field that so endangers the security of Carmel colony’s residents who would not let the children play there because the colonists were told it was not approved. According to people from Dhahariya, they were told by the DCO, and I quote: You need approval even for a hole in the ground that you wish to dig for a sitting hen…

All this happens while the Israel Supreme Court has forbidden continuing to build a new colony. The existing structures were not destroyed and are simply manned. A. says they see families with women and children who began living in the forbidden structures. The road there has even been made wider so that the bus could collect the children to school in Susya in the morning. In the meantime, the new residents come and go through the Umm al Khair community center.

There is a video showing the selective application of state laws, and the criminal colonists have no trouble breaking the law, while applying the laws to Palestinians.

This is how we live the whole time, A. says quietly, sadly.

This is very evil everyday reality.