Noon

This was not a regular shift, but rather a tour of Qalandya with Danny Rubinstein and Alex Libak. Their story will be in Ha'Aretz on Sunday 3.11. The older soldiers in Qalandya south ("kav ha'tefer" soldiers) confiscated Libak's journalist ID because he did not stop filming when they told him to. A verbal fight erupted, with Rubinstein lashing out at the soldiers, and they lashing back, with tempers rising by the minute and threatening to detain us all. The soldier on thehilltop pointed his gun at Alex (below him, on the ground). He also spit at us and showed us the finger. Only when Y called the commander of the area were Alex's documents returned, and permission to take photos granted, and tempers cooled off. This is being reported even though no Palestinians were involved, because, like i's story in a previous report, it shows how easy it is to get on the wrong side of the soldiers, and how harsh the consequences could be.