I remember cases [where] windshields were smashed and things like that. That’s why I’m talking about not being sufficiently prepared in my training for the actual fact that what I was going to do in my army service was to cope with a [civilian] population and what to do, and when, and how. We were never instructed about that. It was down to your personality, the person that you are. I remember the case of ***. Someone objected to her bringing her dog into his car, so she smashed the windshield of the car with her rifle butt, because she got really pissed off.

What did they do to her at the unit? Nothing much.

If the dog defecates inside a car, is there any response from the unit? No, it doesn’t ever reach the higher ranks.

It stays among the combatants? Yes, it’s very trivial. Because what’s a smelly car compared to the security of the State of Israel? But there’s no order at the checkpoints. You randomly stop vehicles, “eenie meenie miney mo”, unless there’s a specific alert. Personally, I was never told that we were waiting for a specific suspicious vehicle at those checkpoints. I was just passing the time there.

What did you do when it rained? Conduct searches in the rain…

You’d get all the passengers out of the car and search it? Yes, we’d work in the rain, too.

And whoever you made disembark would stand under some shelter? At Tapuch (checkpoint) there’s nothing, if I’m not mistaken.

And wouldn’t the dog get the inside of the car all dirty? He’d get it dirty, definitely.

What did you do if that happened? Whatever I could. Personally, I felt uncomfortable about that, so I’d wipe the mud off with my hand. Sometimes, the training session would end with the feeling that “Oh, this is so uncomfortable, look what state I left his car in”. The dog could also rip up the seat upholstery and stuff like that. What can you say? “I’ll get you a new one”? No, I’m a soldier in the IDF and you’re an Arab. It’s my job. So you say, “Well, shit happens” and move on. He gets annoyed because there’s nothing he can do about it.

And he drives off with the car filthy or torn? Yes.

And all this is training, just to make sure your dog is working well? Yes. I never did any operational activity, just endless training.