I had gone out for a day to where there was plowing in the area of Eli (a settlement in the West Bank). Our job that day was to protect a number of Palestinians who were plowing the area around Eli, because that whole area there is privately-owned Palestinian land, it’s all olive groves. We went out to the field. There was also a Border Police vehicle and a reservists’ vehicle with us. We were just keeping the order – no Palestinian goes into the settlement, and no settler goes out to start any problems with the Palestinians. Nobody bothers each other, and that’s it. We started early in the morning, and we coordinated with the Palestinians. They went out to the land, and we guarded them. Within two hours, we hear via the two-way radio, “There’s somebody bothering the Palestinians in such-and-such an area, go check it out.” So we went there. *** is Druze, so he was our contact with the Palestinians, because he spoke Arabic. We got there and I saw that there was one settler who’d started causing trouble. We asked the Palestinians what was going on, [and they said] “He’s bothering us, he isn’t letting us work, we are trying to do such-and-such, and he’s also bothering the women who are sitting over there.” So we spoke to him, and he goes “I don’t care.” My commander, a major, knew him, and told him “Don’t bother them, this is your only chance, we won’t tell you again.” And he goes “OK” and walked away. We drove off to do another patrol. Fifteen minutes later we got another call on the two-way: “He slashed all the tires on the tractors.” We went back, [the Palestinians] were all standing there, and what were we supposed to do? All the tires. My commander calls the Border Police guys, they got there within 20 seconds to chase after that guy. When he called the reservists over they said, “No, we’re not going to go chasing after some Jewish guy.” And he goes “That’s an order. Come now.” The Border Police guys went back. They didn’t find him.

And was this guy caught in the end? No.

Was his identity known? Yes. The Israel Police came over, and in the end I think nothing happened with it. My commander knew this guy, knew his name. They chased after him for 20 minutes. They didn’t find him – I don’t know what happened with him. I assume nothing happened with it.