In a previous article (here), I described a not-very-well-publicized violent day-in-a-shepherd’s-life in Area C. In this current article, I am writing about one single detail in the Arab narrative.
The Story of the Agricultural Structure
In his tweets about the violence, B’Tselem activist Basel Adra claimed that the Jews set afire an agricultural structure the Arabs built where they graze their sheep. In the darkness, you cannot see much more than a bit of flame and smoke in the background. On the video you can hear him complaining that the army did not respond to requests to help them put it out.
Screenshot from Basel Adra video showing fire from a distance.
Adra could have got closer to the burning building and taken clearer pictures of it but then we all might have seen what Haaretz was kind enough to show us in their article on the incident: the same building in the light of day following the supposed attempted burning.
In my earlier article I wondered about this structure, writing:
It does not look like the brick structure was one that would lend itself to being set on fire. If a fire did start, it was likely tires that were aflame. . . . one must wonder what tires are doing around this “agricultural” (?) structure. Is this a junk yard pile? Is this a collection of flammable materials to be used for nefarious purposes? If this is agricultural land, what are they doing here like this? I turned to Regavim spokeswoman, Naomi Kahn, and her answer deserved a separate article in order not to make this one too long.
This is that separate article.
An anonymous and reliable source informed me that erection of the structure began in early summer 2021. At that time, it was composed of corrugated aluminum, wood and other scrap materials. With time, a layer of bricks and the window were added, and finally, the walls were covered with old tires. By mid October 2021, just over three weeks before the violence erupted near Mitzpe Yair, the structure was complete with three rows of tires along the walls, looking like rows of doughnuts.
Kahn told me that this structure has been used as a base for violent operations against the Jewish communities, with Arabs shooting from there and throwing rocks.
Why the tires? Could they be forming a layer of insulation against possible retaliation? No. The tires are weapons. According to Elhanan Gruner, flaming tires were rolled toward the Jewish shepherd and his sheep. I suppose that when rolled from the higher positions on the wall they can achieve quite a respectable velocity.
This means that the incident on 10 November was premeditated on the part of the Arabs. And that is why Jewish leftist activists were there. They knew what was going to happen and they were on site to report on it for Israeli media who do not feel the need to investigate the veracity of such claims. Itai Feitelson’s presence, for example, was mentioned in the Haaretz article in which I found the image that forms the basis for this piece.
It is irrelevant who set the wall of tires on fire, Jewish gunshot or the Arabs themselves. And this explains why the soldiers did not help put it out — why should they?! The tires were there to attack Jews with.
Kahn remarks that, had the illegal construction been taken down when first noticed in the summer, there would have been no structure from which to so viciously attack the Jewish shepherd and his sheep last week. But its presence was ignored by the Civil Administration.
How is grazing possible in a military firing zone?
I asked Kahn how it is possible that the state leases land to a Jewish shepherd when that land is in a military firing and training zone, the famed Area 918. She informed me that Arabs are also provided with permits to graze their flocks in Area 918, in fact on all state land and JNF land around the country, just like the Jews.
It is well recognized that grazing requires large stretches of land and that the shepherd moves across the land as the animals seek edible plants. The permits allow the army to be aware of where the shepherds are at all times. This way they can contact the shepherds in advance of training so that they stay away from the intended practice zone and are not harmed in any way. That makes sense to me. When shepherds take upon themselves to graze wherever they want, without concerning themselves with permits or leasing the land, they put themselves and their animals at risk of serious harm.
The permit does not provide a license for the erection of any permanent or semi-permanent structures. This means that the shomera, or shepherd’s booth, that is commonly put up in grazing areas to provide protection for the shepherd from the elements, is not allowed.
Cunning, planning and patience
Just think of the ingenuity in devising this plan: putting up what could possibly be mistaken for a legitimate (if illegal) shomera, built by and for Arab shepherds (on land on which they had no grazing permits) and which was intended to serve as a base from which to attack a Jewish shepherd who does have a permit to graze his sheep in that spot.
The innocent shomera was never meant to be a camouflaged storage space/ launching pad for weapons of war. Will every shomera across the land now be suspect? Should they all be taken down?
What other magic tricks are they thinking up at this very moment?
{Reposted from the author’s blog}