What could it do? What are we, engineering contractors?No, we'd simply come along and block their (Palestinians') roads, so they couldn't travel. Simply lock them up inside, for, as far as we were concerned, if we close them in so they can't come out, we control them. Practically speaking you've devastated them physically and emotionally. They should not get out so they will not have any work, any livelihood. And that's bullshit. We need them more than we even think. The whole industrial zone over there employs Palestinians and it cannot function if they can't show up for work. Very respectable industry has been set up there with government incentives, because this whole settlement region has been developed by the government. So companies would quarrel over the shuffle and when it came we'd come along, make the rounds with the battalion commander in my designated area, "I want this, this and this." That's how we'd go over the area together and indicate where he wants the shuffle to block passage. As a deputy company commander you're running along with the shuffle, and that's work, waiting around until it moves, digging, taking hours, and blocking off all the villages, all exits from roads and dangerous villages.

The battalion commander was authorized to say which village would be blocked?Which areas he could block, preventing people from getting out of Qalqiliya. This was in the Qalqiliya district, and, that bulldozer, that was a real chore. Ineffective. They're not stupid. They know their area much better than we do. And they'd get out to work. So I say he had his instructions. He had the possibility – as far as the brigade was concerned – to block and prevent movement along various roads (…) I think that eventually everything concerning those blocks is simply a result of boredom. Unadulterated boredom.

The battalion commander is bored so he creates blockades?Yes, to show action.