It was very hard for me to see the monument built for Baruch Goldstein [in Kiryat Arba]. There’s just a huge, beautiful and dignified monument of sorts with trees all around. Until you hear his story you think he was a great man, a righteous man, and then you hear the story about how he just murdered so many people [Palestinians] who were praying (the testifier is referring to the Tomb of the Patriarchs massacre that took place in February 1994, in which 29 Palestinians were murdered and 125 were wounded by Baruch Goldstein, a settler from Kiryat Arba). I remember I was horrified by the community's perception of him. That he’s a hero. Big part of my experience in Hebron involved asking myself many times if I’m on the right side.

What do you mean?As a soldier you need to carry out orders… They tell you that you need to guard some march, Jews that just came to an Arab village, placed caravans and settled there, in the middle of this hilltop. They basically wanted to expand the area and they decided to set up a synagogue, which is also illegal, of course. When they inaugurate a synagogue and put a Torah scroll in there, they do some kind of very large procession into it. Then they bring us as soldiers, we have to guard this procession. They block all the roads so that these guys can march their illegal march, we get to their makeshift synagogue, [they] bring in the Torah scroll and then there’s an assembly. Some female rabbi gets up and talks about how we should all look around us, that the entire area is ours, we need to get it back. How did she say it? Obama just wants to put us in ghettos, and put fences up around us like they used to do – and we will break down the fences, expanding things. And I’m supposed to guard this place. There was also a religious member of Knesset there, I don’t remember who it was.

They start marching with the Torah scroll and all that –where do they pass through?They pass through Palestinians neighborhoods, where the passage is blocked.

Who stops them?The army puts a patrol there, soldiers who stand with weapons to guard, and to warn anyone who wants to pass through that now they can't. They wait for the procession to end.

How long does it last?Something like an hour and a half, if I’m not mistaken, and they walk very slowly, as is fitting for the inauguration of a Torah scroll. There’s a very large community that goes there. I estimate that there were 50-100 people. I remember that little kids were passing next to me during the procession, religious kids from the settlement. I remember they actually talked to me about my weapon, “show me your bipod, show me your Trijicon (scope).” They really know a lot. What goes through my head at that time is that kids should be playing with Legos rather than talking about weapons all day. Because they really made an issue of it. Every time we would pass next to them they would pause on our weapons, kids. There was a kid who came to me and told me that when he grows up he wants to be a soldier and kill Arabs. A really young kid. That’s also an experience I’ll never forget.

They arrive with the procession to the same outpost, the same structure, the synagogue - and what happens there?They hold some kind of ceremony around the inauguration of the Torah scroll itself, and, as I said before, some female rabbi came and gave some short speech on how important it is that this place belong to the Jews, and that it’s ours and no one will stop us, and the whole world is against us, and that we’ll overcome these things and everything will be fine, and that we’re the living nation of Israel, and that we’ll win.The entire area, which is an illegal outpost – does the army continue to protect it and defend it afterwards, too?Yes. I think that there’s a post there to this day. Two people were guarding a few settlers there, I think it was three families.

It’s a few isolated caravans?Yeah, yeah. Two to three caravans. Totally.