Above [the Palestinian town of] Bani Na’im there’s a house that overlooks Route 60. Route 60 is the road leading from Jerusalem to the Hebron area, and [there is] actually a house that dominates the whole area, a serious house where a doctor lives. We used to call it “The Doctor’s House.” It’s a house we would take over – it’s hard for me to give a number – personally I carried out a ‘straw widow’ in that house (a temporary army post set up inside a Palestinian home in order to carry out an ambush or create a lookout) at least four times, to the point where I know the family members. One time he (the Palestinian owner) – he just had enough. The man bought a house, built a house, invested good money in it which he earned honestly, as he’s the Bani Na’im doctor or something like that, and the army comes to him and we simply make his life miserable. He doesn’t know which night we’ll show up, according to which decision by a brigade commander [saying that] on that particular day we need a lookout over Route 60. And every time we arrive and [carry out] a straw widow. We come in, read him his rights, wake up the entire household, move [them into one of the rooms]. One time [the doctor] said no. He stood up: “You’re not coming in.” Standing there opposite a squad of soldiers. “You’re not coming in.” Soldiers arrived, shouting [began], they were about to arrest him. At the end of the day, he’s in emotional turmoil, “Get out of here, leave me alone.” And eventually they explained to him, “You’ll be arrested.” He understood that the situation is shit and allowed [the soldiers in]. Yet again. And I wouldn’t be surprised if it happens to this day. Now, two things happen here: from the civilian and humanitarian point of view – there’s no point in me even beginning to say how bad it is and how we make the lives of the family [of] the town doctor miserable. And on the military level – how easy would it be for him to wire the house with explosives? How easy would it be for him to wait for us with a gun because he’s frustrated? And he has no fear. That’s something that you see a lot: people have no fear from the army, no intimidation. [They] know exactly who the soldiers are, they see what they do on guard duty. Same thing with him. They lost their fear, the things that as long as we’re carrying out an occupation and military control – this is the worst thing there is.
Could you throw a ballpark number of how many “widows” you did in the course of two years? Dozens.
Did you get to return to the same house several times? Loads. The Doctor’s House is an example. There are houses where they don’t complain anymore.