In Nablus, there’s settlers from Elon Moreh and all the issues of the Territories. It’s really different there because you aren’t inside the city, you surround it. It’s harder to control, even though you’ve got Mount Gerizim and Mount Eval. We had a lot of trouble controlling the area in Nablus because of the settlers’ isolated farms, and the state’s decided that the IDF will protect them: three or four soldiers guarding a shack or a hilltop that’s totally exposed.

Is it dangerous? Normally soldiers on settlement security detail are responsible for that kind of thing. It’s more random than that. As soon as there’s an order from the regional brigade or above, it goes down to the brigade, to the battalion, to the company, and finally to you.

Do you know if the hilltop settlements were legal? Because there’s the whole issue of illegal outposts. You assume that if the regional brigade gave the order then it’s okay. When you’re out in the field, you don’t know about where things stand with the Supreme Court. There were a lot of problems with this, because sometimes they didn’t want us to go up and guard [the outposts], because the moment you start guarding them, you give them legitimacy. The settlers want to fix borders, grab land, and establish a settlement. They don’t care much about someone guarding them. Anyway, all the settlers have weapons. That’s another problem, because in the dark you might identify a man with a weapon, and you have to be very careful. There were problems with harassing Palestinians as well.