3 Nov 2014 evening

In the evening, while we were planning the next day we heard that the Israeli military had moved into Awarta, a short ride from where we were, with a frontend loader, a line of armored jeeps and, many soldiers. They had closed the road into town. This is the typical pattern for house demolitions. We checked with our Palestinian contacts to say we were ready to come if we were wanted – we were. Awarta is the home of two Palestinians who are in prison and their house now lie empty as part of the collective punishment the Israeli occupying force uses regularly. The general assumption was that as part of delivering the message of oppression they were now going to demolish the houses.  After negotiating a price with the taxi we took off, on the way the cab driver offered to take a longer route that would get us into town around the military road block. But by the time we got there the military was moving out.  One view is that it was just a training maneuver for the military.  Another view is that it was designed to deliver the message that we can close any town when we want and search the town or demolish houses when we want.