I Saw it in Palestine

A Quiet Day in Tuwani:

Everything here in the At-Tuwani area is calm and peaceful. It's unseasonably cold, which suits me fine, and it seems that most shepherds today are embracing the fact that it's a Friday as a reason to stay home. We're all having a bit a rest, which is welcome after the last couple of weeks of non-stop shepherding and non-stop harassment from the settlers and the army.

This morning, though, a group of settlers, one of whom was visuably armed with a large automatic rifle, road on horseback out from Havot Ma'on outpost toward Mfagraha village. Being concerned, we called someone in the village who explained to me that this had been taking place reguarly for the last few days. "It's normal," he told me.

Normal for hostile men to ride through your village, displaying their guns? Normal, when this are the same people who beat up small children on the way to school?

I am always astonished by the human cacapcity to cope.