I’d go out on patrols in different sectors to see how the soldiers—our soldiers, too—to see how they treated the Palestinians. It disgusts you as a human being. But you’re part of the system, and more, if you aren’t part of that base, then there isn’t much you can do. Disgusting things. Every Civil Administration soldier knows what an open-sided shelter is. There’s the open-sided shelter outside the DCL, and the Palestinians wait there. All the Palestinians who come to request a permit wait there. And there’s the window. They approach the window—a bulletproof window, on the other side of the glass, our soldiers are sitting there and printing out permits. They give them the permits. A Palestinian can sit and dry out in that open-sided shelter for five hours, and even longer, for a few days.

Because? The “because” is very hard for me to explain. It’s not that the soldier lets the Palestinian dry out for no reason. No. He has to go through a Shin Bet check—I don’t remember the exact procedure anymore. But let’s just say that if these were Israelis, it wouldn’t be like that. I saw for myself disgusting things. In the DCL, there was a shade for the window, so the Palestinians couldn’t see you. So you can lower the shade and they just sit outside, but when the shade goes up you can see soldiers inside playing soccer, and all kinds of nonsense, and laughing at everyone sitting outside, telling someone to “Come,” so he comes over, and then saying, “No, no, sit.” It’s just the power that you have. At some point it fucks you up, if you’re a human being.