They arrested an older man, like around 50 something, because the footprints of kids who threw stones led to his house.

A Palestinian?Yes, a Palestinian. And they brought him to us. He had his hands like tied with one zip tie, so I changed it to three, so he’d have a little more [comfort]. I watched him for half an hour, 40 minutes maybe. He didn’t know Hebrew. He sort of tried to communicate with me a little, and me with him, but it wasn’t... It wasn’t really it. But I really remember... His face was really, I remember it. [He had] these very blue eyes, a black and white Palestinian keffiyeh. After that it was like... Because actually you don’t really see the Palestinians. Not up close, anyway. You do things, do foot patrols, do the missions, patrols, [but] you don’t really see the people who live there. Like, not really. You see the settlers more.

What happened with this guy, what happened with him after you watched him?After half an hour they came, I think it was the Shin Bet [Security Service] or someone, and just took him. I didn’t see him after that. But to suddenly see a person sitting in front of you, it’s something that you don’t, like, you don’t see the people. That’s the thing that seemed to me like, that was very disturbing, and I didn’t understand why something like this was disturbing [me] in the experience of seeing.

Do you remember this as the first time you had an interaction with a Palestinian?Yes, yes. I think [it was] the only [time] that it was so close.

Try for a moment to explain what you mean when you say “you don’t see the Palestinians” to someone who wasn’t there.For example, we had a summons [mission], the first summons I took part in. In a summons you bring someone [a document that says] “come in for interrogation.” They wouldn’t send a letter or anything. You come to the person’s house at 2 AM. It’s like an arrest: you learn the route, you do an operative walk to the house, you surround the house from all sides, the platoon commander and his signaler open the door. Knock, knock, knock, “Jeish, jeish, iftach el bab” (“Army, army, open the door” in Arabic). The usual things. And you give him the letter and leave. I’m covering from some corner in the house. Like, what my experience is you drive in a Wolf, which is like this armored vehicle, get to the thing (the village), get off, walk about two kilometers, half a kilometer, on foot. Get there (to the home of the Palestinian family), go to the corner of a house, stand (guard) at the corner of the house, wait for an hour, go back to the Wolf. You don’t see people. You’re doing like... errands.