Jordan Valley: Another day of accompanying Palestinian herders

Another day of accompanying Palestinian herders near Ein Rashash, above the Jordan Valley, to make sure they will not be kicked off their grazing lands by settlers or the army - eager to claim all of area C for Israel, without any Palestinians.

A beautiful day, the storks circling above, going back home in the north. We laze around in the sun, fantasizing that the settlers from the illegal outpost "Angels of Peace" that Guy Hirshfeld calls "Angels of Death" have taken off for the holidays and won't show up to harass the shepherds.

We enjoy a breakfast of matzot brought by one of us and pitot, with homemade cheeses, a true multicultural menu, drink sugared tea with our Bedouin hosts, and decide that all is quiet and start to walk back towards our car.

Just then, the all-terrain vehicle appears driven by Elhanan, the 'responsible adult' of the outpost, this time with his little son, heading for the shepherds we just left. What does he tell his son, he surely must explain to him why he is chasing away the Bedouin shepherds?

We call the army to report the threat. Of course it takes them a long time to come. Elhanan and his young son have already made it to the shepherds we left, so we start to go down towards the flocks, but we are not so fast. Fortunately, Elhanan does not harass them this time and returns - is it our presence, even though at a distance, or that of his son?

Just as we return to our car, we see the army jeep that we called coming - but by then all is quiet (and we had reported that too to the army), and the flocks are already far away into the valley.