out with Arik Ascherman to the occupied territories, east of Taibe junction, off road 449 that leads down into the Jordan Valley toward Jericho.
Arik had received word this morning that the settlers from Neria Ben Pazi's illegal outpost north of route 449, below Rimonim, were again grazing their sheep and cows on Palestinian lands south of the road, and were seen stealing water from the Palestinian wells at a former Bedouin camp that had been confiscated by the civil authorities a few months ago. The settler herds had apparently also grazed off all that had been planted in the nearby Palestinian fields.
Indeed, the Israeli settler movement has understood that keeping their own herds is a most effective way to control more and more land.
When we arrived, after five in the afternoon, we found the settler herds of cows and sheep near another former Bedouin camp that had been abandoned more recently because of settler intimidation. Arik called the landowner, but he was not able to come at that time. The police did come this time, heard our story and identified and spoke with one of the young settler shepherds on horseback - but did not get him to move his herds out of the private Palestinian lands. The settlers are not afraid of the police.
The landowner will meet Arik at the police station next week to lodge a complaint - at a time when Arik knows there will be an Arabic speaking police officer at the Benjamin station - as the landowner had already tried to lodge complaints for previous incursions on his land when no such officer was available.
We were about to leave for Dir Jerir, when Neria himself arrives in his car - we follow him into the fields, and find a viewpoint on a hill - he goes to talk to another Bedouin with his herd, and then disappears further into the fields, who knows what he is doing there, but we stay near the abandoned camps, and the young settlers now bring their herds to the second camp, where the well is. Arik contacts the second owner, who is willing to come, if the police do come again. But the police take Arik's call but do not come. They say that it is getting dark and they had already come earlier - even though it the herds were on the land of a different owner. We take photos and videos and that owner will also lodge a complaint.
It is getting dark, the red, full Tu be Av moon rises - but we do not see the settler herds cross the road to return to their home outpost. Arik phones one of Bedouin, who says he is ok. Still Arik is worried, that the man is pressured by the settlers to say all is fine when it is not. Arik wants to return later with another activist, and spend the night nearby, in case he gets an emergency call.
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