In Gush Etzion we had a mission in which we needed to secure the police, and one day we were told to secure them while they were carrying out demolitions of illegally constructed structures. I remember that we destroyed a stand, a shop for selling fruits and vegetables on the side of the road. They brought in a D9 (armored heavy bulldozer) to demolish it.

Do you remember where this was? On a central road leading toward the direction of Kiryat Gat. It was close to a gas station, close to a checkpoint in the direction of Beit Shemesh.

Who did the police send over?A jeep, a D9? A jeep, a D9, DCO (District Coordination Office) – The DCO were with us wherever we went. They’d come with a court order and just do all the demolitions in one day. Go up to the guy (the Palestinian) and talk to him, tell him, “OK, you had a hearing and you were told, you were warned.” DCO would come and talk with him, they’d give him time to take all the stuff he’d managed to out, and then the D9 just came and destroyed the place.

Did they have time to collect their things, to take their produce? Yeah, he had a bit of time. I don’t think he had enough time to grab everything, but they gave him a few minutes. It wasn’t exactly a house, it was more a sort of structure for selling things by the side of the road, the guy was just selling fruit and vegetables on the side of the road.

A sort of shack? Yes. That’s especially why I thought it was a bit uncalled for. He argued with them a bit, there was no violence there. He didn’t try to do anything. In securing them, I didn’t have to reach a confrontation with anyone all day. We did a few more. There were also some house in the direction of the tunnels, near Har Gilo, in a village in the area outside of Bethlehem. It was an orderly place, a nice place actually, it wasn’t your regular village, this was more orderly. I remember a doctor’s sign, nice houses. But really close to the area of the tunnel there was the structure, this was more of a house already, they never finished building it. I was sent over to some observation post to make sure nobody came. This was more serious and it took more time.