They should not be here...

When I arrived at the spring in Khirbet Tana, a small village in the northern West Bank, I suddenly saw a blue jeep coming from the southeast hills. It was followed by four other rugged vehicles. The vehicles halted for a few moments when my fellow Ecumenical Accompaniers (EAs) and I were first spotted, but then the blue jeep aggressively continued driving towards us, followed by the other vehicles.

The local villagers previously told us that settlers come down from the hilltops to swim in the well on Fridays and Saturdays; thus, we remained in place. 

It was Friday noon in the beginning of August; the intention of our visit was to escort a Municipal Officer from the nearby village of Beit Furik to check the water level of the spring and to introduce a new team of EAs to the area whom will be replacing us in Yanoun.

The blue jeep parked over the water-well. The others parked under a nearby tree. We watched the men get out of their vehicles and come up to the entrance of the well. The group consisted of 16 males from the Israeli settlements of Itamar and Ariel, most whom were in their twenties and thirties, and at least two of them were carrying firearms. 

The sight was unreal. The aggressive driving on the hillside and the flock of young men with a focus on the spring, gave an impression of a mob, closing in on its prey. I have only seen such a sight in movies before. 

Our presence seemed to be a surprise to the settlers, but it did not stop them. Several of them stripped down to their underwear and went into the well. It was an act of power and superiority, a statement. And I felt sorry for the few children who were a part of this.

The oldest-looking member of the group said to us: “We know what you are doing here... that you are watching us. But we do not care.” He said that they came to “have a good time.” We told him that they were polluting the water, which is used by the villagers of Khirbet Tana, but he said that the spring belongs to the settlers. Moreover, he said that the people of Khirbet Tana “should not be here” as their houses are illegal. When I asked him, “who says that the houses in Khirbet Tana are illegal?”, he simply replied, “the (Israeli) government.” Although, according to International Humanitarian Law, it is the Israeli settlements in the West Bank that are illegal.

After the settlers finished swimming and went to sit under a close-by tree to drink beer and eat, we checked the well and found that the water level had increased due to a reduction in farming in Khirbet Tana, which is the result of Israeli restrictions that prevent local villagers from accessing their farm land.