I Saw it in Palestine

Life Itself

Soldiers were swarming. The army sent two jeeps to order around two shepherds who were grazing their sheep in Humra valley, but there wasn't quite enough to keep all of those young men with guns busy. A few soliders sat in the jeeps or talked on their cell phones, but others took initiative, find ways to harass the shepherds. They took photographs, demanded IDs, ordered Palestinians not to stand on the road, made snide remarks, threated, begged, and vainly tried to heard the sheep down into the bottom of the valley.

Meanwhile, the commander argued with the landowners. "You can't graze here," they claimed. "Show us a map," asserted the shepherds and landowners. "This is our land."

"We set the rules," ordered the soldier, refusing to show them a order from the DCO.

"And we have rights," replied the Palestinians.

The stand-off continued. The army did everything in its power to order make the shepherds leave. But the sheep kept grazing, munching away on thistles and zaatar oblivious to what was happening around them. Eventually, while the landowners continued to make their case to the army, the shepherds slipped away voluntarily, the day's grazing finished. But they didn't leave their land until a tiny black and white sheep was born. Out from of its mother, the lamb came. It cried out as it took its first breaths and a shepherd glently lifted it up by the front legs and carried it away.

Life cannot actually be controlled or occupied. Resistance isn't a choice - it's life itself. The Israeli goverment, it's army, and Israeli settlers are fighting a battle they cannot win.