We were in very close touch with the guy from the outpost. He kicked out Bedouins from where he built his farm. He works the land over there, he has dates, he has olives and he’s slowly expanding it by patrolling farther with his sheep each time. If you look at a map you’ll see that he doesn’t have too much space to expand into, but he’s expanding as much as he can. Just one person almost, with a few teens who help him. He would talk to my company commander and sometimes he would ask him come help us patrol here a little.

What does patrol mean?He would ask us to come patrol around the area of his farm too with the Hummer.

How would he talk to you?Call us.

What, on the cell phone?Yes.

Where did he get your number?From the company commander. The same way we had contact with the CSCs there (Civilian Security Coordinator, a settler in charge of the security of the settlement, appointed by the Ministry of Defense), there was contact with him too.

The company commander would give him your phone number, the patrol commander’s number?Yes.

And you would come?Sometimes, yes.

And what would you do?Do a loop around there, stop there. There’s a memorial near there, we’d go there sometimes too and the purpose of it was among other things also that the farm isn’t attacked. So no one tries to raise their head around the farm, because not too many years ago he kicked out Bedouins from there, that I know for a fact.

When you did patrols, did you happen to come across Bedouins in that area?Never.

Would Bedouins sometimes come near his farm with a flock?They wouldn’t come. If they had, he would have kicked them out.

How would he kick them out?I believe they knew who they were dealing with. He had a weapon there, he had an M16.

Did you get any instructions about this?Yes, if [the Bedouins] show up there, kick them out.

There means near the farm?It was pretty clear because he was spread out on a pretty big area there with orchards.

Who gave you the area boundaries for where they were allowed to approach and where they weren’t?As part of our patrol from the area I remember it being said. In the briefings.