El Nave Farm, illegal outpost on "state land", an initiative of a young army-sponsored couple

14:30 – We passed by Barta’a Reihan Checkpoint .  This is the first day of the closure because of the Purim holiday and the far parking lots were completely empty.  There were only a few cars in the parking lot close to the checkpoint. We decided to visit a place that we had heard about from the Turkeman shepherds who live opposite the settlement of Hermesh.  The place is called Naveh Farm and it is located near Emricha.  We walked up there along a new dirt road to see if the road was accessible.  We passed a field filled with squills and a new water facility on the other side of the riverbed that was leaking.  The road wound along the side of the mountain and we decided to drive up.   On the way we met a young man wearing a yarmulke wearing a pistol who walked down to the road.  We asked him if it was possible to reach the farm by car and he asked if we had arranged a visit with his wife Batel.  The farm appears on Facebook:    https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=403764737096436.

We explained that we had not and that this was a spontaneous visit.  He also managed to shout at two Palestinians that it was forbidden to pick akub here.  Later we learned that Nadav was going to buy a car.  We reached a farm at the top of a hill with a splendid view all around.  There was a truck for living quarters and tents for guests and volunteers, a sheep pen and a special pen for lambs, a water דאםרשעק אשמל that was no longer needed, and a generator.   

We met Batel, the mother of a 3-month old baby girl who was born in Tel Aviv who also knew about the leak in the water facility and reported it, a high school volunteer who worked in the sheep pen, and two women soldiers and a male soldier who sat in the dark tent who guard the farm 24/7 in a military unit devoted to that purpose.  Batel and Nadav raise sheep for meat.  The far is on 2-3 kilometers that was occupied during Hanukah by the Shomron Regional Council and they claim that it is state land.  Later we gave the volunteer a ride and she told us that the farm was named for Batel’s brother who had died.  She likes coming here and her parents encourage her to do so.  She is from Netanya.  She go out at the bus stop at Barta’a Checkpoint where Nadav was also waiting.  On the way she reported that there were two suspicious cars in the grazing area.

We continued on to visit the new neighborhood in the settlement of Reihan.  A tractor was moving large boulders next to a brick sidewalk and there were many wild orchids in the fields. 

At Tura Checkpoint the soldiers chatted and ignored a car that was waiting at the checkpoint.  This is a phenomenon lately and usually our intervention gets them moving while voicing some sort of complaint.  A woman soldier walked up to the sleeve where a family with small children was passing and bent town towards one of the children.  We heard a man explaining what the family had told us: that they were going to visit family. 

At 16:40 we sat down in a small kiosk in Um A Reihan to summarize our trip.