With Arik Ascherman of Torat Tzedek checking on outpost settlers who graze their flocks again and again in fields owned and cultivated by Palestinians. Below the Taibe Junction, where the hilltop youth of the Neria Farm keep on bringing their herds, as well as near the Ma'ale Ahuvya illegal outpost, on the cultivated lands of Dir Jarir.
Arik is insistent on his presence at these fields, he goes out there every single morning and returns there every afternoon. I join him only once a week. He does not give up - for giving up means allowing the Jewish settlement enterprise another victory in its steadfast process of taking over Palestinian lands. This is what it is all about - holding on.
Slowly that perseverance is bearing fruit, be it only a little bit at a time. It is not a hopeless battle against windmills. For as soon as the young shepherds see us, in both places, they start to move their flock away from the cultivated fields.
What a difference from a few weeks ago, when Arik was viciously attacked by hilltop youth from Ma'ale Ahuvya. They will certainly be back when we leave, but at least they know they should not be there, the DCO (the liaison office between civilians and the army) has determined that the settlers are forbidden to graze their sheep and cows on Palestinian owned and cultivated lands, at least at the Taibe junction.
And so the police is more willing to come, to receive our incriminating photographs, as they did today (in contrast to only last week...). Perhaps also because now the grazing is defined as an act of theft - of the harvest - rather than as trespassing, which does not require the complicated process of owners of the land to press charges and so is an easier crime to prosecute.
Or perhaps because the attack on Arik brought momentary media attention to what is happening in these lands.
in the fields of Dir Jerir, the gate to a Palestinian vineyard has been broken, most likely by the settlers from the nearby outpost Ma'ale Ahuvya. The owners have called the police.
In the background, the settlement of Rimonim.
a view of Ma'ale Ahuvya, whose settlers have violently attacked Arik with sticks just a couple of weeks ago. Just after their illegal outpost had been demolished on court order. It has since been rebuilt...