There’s a researcher for studies of the land of Israel who’s considered among the leading scholars of historic Israel. He studies Judea and Samaria. He also lives in Judea and Samaria. He’s a settler, very knowledgeable, who tells lots of stories. One day they came and told our officer: It’s your responsibility to be responsible for ****. Anything he wants - you need to provide.

Who told you that?The unit commander, with authorization from the brigade commander for all intents and purposes. In other words, When they say the magic word ****, [if it’s needed] for the purposes of authorizing something with the brigade, it’s authorized. Now, ****, whether consciously or not, studies mosques in particular, and the idea is to prove that there was a Jewish presence in certain mosques, or that they were built on something Jewish. At the end of the day, **** calls every time and says: I want to visit mosque X, Y, Z. One time it was a mosque in a town called Bani Na’im, outside Hebron. He claimed that it was very plausible that Lod’s wife from the Bible was buried inside the mosque. They demanded that a visit to the mosque be organized for him. As those responsible for the relations with the Palestinians, we understood the significance. Especially when it’s a guy that looks like a settler and the order is to make it happen in coordination. What’s coordination? It means that the officer calls the Palestinians and they can’t say no to him, they won’t say, “We don’t want you to visit.”

Why not?Because they’re scared, they want to maintain good relations with the army, because they know that when they say no to us, we can attack or stick it to them like 1,000 times. In general, a tour inside a mosque is coordinated with the Waqf. A Waqf is a Palestinian authority that is similar to our Rabbinate. For example, the visit to Bani Na’im was coordinated with them. We arrived, three jeeps, driving to the mosque in Bani Na’im to visit, research. We didn’t grasp the significance of what we were doing…we went with him, he went in, at first people there were confused, they see the army and stuff. They let us in.

To the mosque?Yes. He was measuring, looking, photographing, the imam arrived and then the mess started, within like half an hour maybe. He says, “Why is there a settler in my mosque?” While he [****] was measuring, we realized more and more people were arriving. We had three jeeps, we were maybe 10 soldiers, and suddenly there were like 150 Palestinians outside the mosque who saw a settler walking into the mosque with the army. For them, even though Bani Na’im is relatively less religious, more affluent – it is absolutely unacceptable. We were in the midst of a major riot inside the mosque. Within seconds our jeeps were being pelted with stones and [we] started running to the jeeps, right in the middle of the masses. They showered our jeep with stones and we had to get out of there. A few months later he sent his research, and it was entirely based on showing Jewish presence in Bani Na’im. To me, and to many looking on from the sidelines, it could look like someone who is trying to justify Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria. It serves their political objective in effect. And it really was like that. We did it several times. In Hebron he really discovered revelations that seemed serious, at least as far as what he claims.

Did you ever ask why they organize this kind of tours for ****?No. It’s just what they did. I never asked or doubted. It’s also very hard; he discovers real evidence. But on the other hand, you walk into an area controlled by another nation, that’s supposed to belong to another nation. The Oslo Accord wasn’t designed for us to violate it so that a scholar can come and research stuff. Oslo permits us to go into Areas A and B (areas in which the Palestinian Authority is responsible for security) but it doesn’t permit us to go in for historical research. What allows us to go into Area C is supposed to be an ongoing substantive threat to the State of Israel and its Jewish citizens. We were in three mosques with him. One, which he claims was Lod’s wife’s tomb; the second, which he claims was a Jewish settlement. He claims that between (the neighborhood of) Tel Rumedia and the Tomb of the Patriarchs there was another small Jewish town, right next to the Tomb of the Patriarchs. And he claims that in order for there to be a Jewish town in this period, there has to be a pool of water. He claims that there’s a mosque that is situated on top of a pool of water.

In the Casbah?Right in the Casbah. We went to the mosque in the Casbah, and after learning our lesson from the incident in Bani Na’im, we went at night, quietly, without being seen. We really did find a kind of pool of water. On the third time we also went into crazy riots in Sair-Shiyuch (towns in the Hebron area).

That was also in a mosque?Inside the mosque – everything is, by chance, inside mosques.

Who escorts these patrols? Are they coordinated ahead of time?They’re coordinated with the Waqf, and they ask for forces from the brigade, and the brigade allocates.

On behalf of whom is he researching?I think he has an institute. He’s considered the number one researcher. I think it’s a non-political institute.