above: photograph by David Shulman

1.

The day got off to a harsh start. No sooner did we reach the village than the two night-shift activists, Y. and R., told us they were climbing the high hill towering over At-Tawa’il to see if there were settlers there with a bulldozer, as Hasan had informed them. And Hasan was right. The bulldozer was clearing a swath of privately owned Palestinian land to create a new road that will connect to the settler outposts just over the hill. You can imagine what this means—an apartheid road meant only for Jews, of the messianic-apocalyptic-violent-sadistic landgrabber variety. Along with stealing the land the bulldozer was also showering the houses down below with boulders and other debris. Y. and R. stopped the bulldozer, and the settlers attacked them.

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