The first day of Eid was yesterday and it rained gorgeous rain. No shepherding; I was told the goats get indigestion if they eat wet grass. Early in the morning we got sad news that the two of our comrades who were arrested had been deported and would not be allowed to return to this country.
Donate to sustain the work, here!
Right after a breakfast of bread and eggs the other volunteer and I were called by a neighboring family to come over because the father had to leave the house. Sure enough, an armed settler arrived on horseback minutes after and paced around the property, grinning at us. He reminded me of a cartoon shark with his teeth flashing. Eventually he got bored and left.
Back in Tuwani where the volunteer house is they weren’t so lucky. Military vehicles lined the road and soldiers “practiced” most of the day. The village feared there might be a raid so two activists staying with a neighboring family and I snuck back to the guest house and hid our electronics and sensitive materials.
The village was not raided in the night, alhamdulilah. The army has come back, however, in black vans with tinted bullet proof windows. Their main motive is intimidation. They want to scare everyone away in order to claim this land as their own then lie that nobody was there before them. This is what colonization looks like in real time.