speech, in which he called Ehud Barak some highly uncomplimentary names from the animal kingdom.

The village head volunteered to show us the way, so that we could view the site of the clash from the army side, from the main road. But as we were leaving the village, we encountered an army jeep. A sergeant with Russian features stopped us with a movement of his hand generally reserved for Arabs. One of us asked him to be polite. He became very angry and told us that we could not leave the village. A blockade was in force; no one comes in, no one goes out. He doesn't give a damn whether we are Israelis or not. Orders are orders.

Only with great difficulty did we convince him to call his superior, who told him, of course, to let us pass. We reached the main road (the cross-Samaria) and had to drive behind a convoy of settlers, when suddenly we were hit by a shower of stones. At some distance we saw a group of small children. Fortunately, only the body of our bus was hit. At lightning speed police and army jeeps appeared on the scene and took up firing positions opposite the village. But the children had already disappeared.

In the meantime, we were told over the phone that the confrontation was really over, so we decided to make for home. On the way, the village head (a renovation contractor active in the Tel-Aviv area) alighted. We waited for a few minutes, to make sure that he got home safely. He started to climb the hill, but before he had gone no further than a few meters, soldiers ran after him, rifles ready to shoot. We got down from the bus and convinced the soldiers that the man was not a dangerous terrorist, but a villager who had been kind enough to show us the way. They let him return to his village. But in the meantime, police had stopped near our bus and made out a traffic-violation ticket, because it was standing on a part of the road where it was not allowed to stand. A stubborn young policewoman refused to yield, but we finally convinced the Druze policeman at the wheel to relent. After all, the bus had been standing there only because we were talking with the soldiers.

Over the phone we heard that two activists from the Jerusalem group had been arrested during the clash at the roadblock. (Neither of the two belonged to Peace Now, as was erroneously reported on the Israeli Channel 1. Peace Now had taken no part in the events of the day.)

This is how the reality of the occupation, November 2000, looks.

We returned home tired but content, as they say. The time was 4 p.m., the hour shooting usually starts.

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