no rest

[photo: Donna Wallach]

Yesterday was deceptively calm for J. We were able to plant some potatoes, harvest more radishes, and begin laying piping to replace the irrigation pipes that were destroyed just last may when J.’s farmland was razed, his chicken barn (3,000 chickens and a couple hundred pigeons) was destroyed, and acres of olive and fruit trees razed to the ground.

Today, no such luck.  A call from J. saying that Israeli 4 tanks and 2 bulldozers have entered his area and are sitting just 100 m from his house.

We arrived an hour later to find he’d left the house and was with his family further away, not foolish or stubborn enough (this time) to stay there in the face of so many tanks.  From a rooftop we surveyed the sweep of the bulldozers, again sweeping the land close to Israel’s fence, in the “buffer zone”.  A few days prior, two bulldozers were accompanied by a solo tank, two distant tanks beyond the fence.  J later shows us the 9 new bullet holes Israeli soldiers shot into the walls of his home that day, adding to the collection.

[photo: Donna Wallach]

[photo: Donna Wallach]

Today’s ante was upped, and this was disturbing, hinting initially at another invasion of the sort that has assaulted J’s farm in the past.

He was spared today, the bulldozers ambling along the buffer zone area, the tanks sitting near his house, then speeding ahead, providing protection for the slower dozers.

[photo: Donna Wallach]

J. doesn’t get too excited at these events, he is so accustomed to it.  He got more excited talking about how he’d like to make a christmas tree for us (using one of the olive trees near his home) and would string blinking lights (he’s forgetting the power outage in his enthusiasm). He’s gotten over our vegetarianism (most of us) and instead revels in providing garden-fresh food.

Once again, we returned to the radish garden.