South Hebron Hills, Sat 5.4.08, Morning
Road 60
All road blocks are in place. No Palestinian cars on the road and there's sparse traffic of Israeli cars.
Near the Maun Farm a group of Taayush and "Worriers for Peace" activists is escorting shepherds to their pastures near the settlement. The shepherds are afraid to approach the area on their own. After the shepherds are there, three young settlers arrive. There's tension. The "security" man of the settlement arrives too.
After a few minutes soldiers from the border police arrive and after that more soldiers. The tension intensifies.
The young settlers realize they will not be able to harm the Palestinians today. Too many soldiers and activists are present.
After an hour in which the sheep continue to eat and the tension is a bit down, all of a sudden the security man jumps and starts walking towards one of the Palestinians that is pasturing in a more distant place. The cameras are out again. He walks quickly and nothing stops him.
We are told that he's walking towards a Palestinian that was arrested the previous week because the security person claimed he slapped him. The Palestinian was released and the security person wants to get even with him.
Albeit the tense incident the soldiers seem indifferent. At the end they stop him from harming the Palestinian.
In the meantime the young settlers left the place and succeeded in driving out another group of shepherds in the wadi below Maun. Over there the presence of leftist activists does not help and the Palestinians are too afraid and prefer to go to more remote areas although there are more weeds in the wadi.
At the end of the day the Palestinians are satisfied. No one was hurt, there were no clashes and they were able to get to new areas.
On our way back the Meitar checkpoint is "full" of cars. 17 cars. The Israelis too have to learn that there a price to the occupation.