Tell me, were there any ‚price tag‚ incidents (acts of vandalism and violence undertaken by settlers against the Palestinian population on ideological grounds. On a number of occasions they have included murder) when you were there?

Near [the settlement of] Yitzhar, there was a period when they would throw stones from the mountain on cars passing by.

From Huwara?

On the road that goes to Jitt.

There’s something called the Huwara corridor over there, do you remember it? It’s as you enter Huwara.

Yes, a road with a row of shops – before the shops. Right before the shops, right next to Yitzhar, right from Yitzhar. It was right from there, Yitzhar is on this hill and there’s a road, and they would throw stones at military cars or...

Military?

It was a period where they were going to be evicted from Havat Gilad, that was like the period when we were there, when the Border Police had to go evacuate them and demolish houses. And then they started, like it was an interesting deployment. It all started and we’re chummy, we’re friendly with them, and they’re bringing us food.

You’re speaking generally.

Yes, and we know their names and sometimes we sit with them when they play the guitar to have a cigarette. And we keep going, a month goes by, two months go by and they’re supposed to be evacuated, they’re not as nice anymore, suddenly [they throw] stones at a Border Police vehicle, stones at a vehicle they thought was a Palestinian vehicle and it hit a civilian vehicle, an Israeli civilian’s vehicle if I’m not mistaken.

In Yitzhar?

I think that was Havat Gilad, I can’t say for sure if it was Havat Gilad or Yitzhar, but I think it was Havat Gilad.

So what happens from your perspective? How do you manage an incident like that?

I never managed this kind of incident, you wouldn’t do very much, you really wouldn’t.

As a soldier, are you allowed to arrest a settler?

I never ever did that, nor was I part of it when it happened.

Did anyone ever address it, whether positively or negatively?

Among us, among the guys, it was like, we wish we could arrest them, but it’s not... I remember I would go home and unload on my parents, how do they not get arrested. And it wasn’t like...

What I’m asking [is], was it even an option as far as you were concerned?

I don’t remember any talk about it being necessary, about us having to go arrest them. No, not at all.

It’s a theoretical question because you say you never were in this kind of situation. But say you have to, you see a settler from Yitzhar throwing stones at the road, [then] what?

Say, call it the battle between Yitzhar and Burin (the testifier is referring to a previous section of his testimony, in which he describes a fight in which settlers from Yitzhar went to Burin to assault Palestinians), it’s not... We could have arrested them and we didn’t arrest them. We didn’t arrest anyone there.

Could you, were you allowed to? Not were you were able to physically, were you allowed to, that’s what I’m asking.

I don’t remember it being an option, that’s the thing. I don’t know if it was allowed or not, but I don’t remember it being an option.