Israeli activists

If you garner all your opinions on Israel from Guardian reports and internet message boards, as I tend to do, you expect every Israeli to be strongly anti-Arab, militaristic, and itching to brand you anti-semitic. It's true of some. Movements within Israel to increase Palestinian human rights are viewed with suspicion, and Israeli Jews working to unite the two groups are virtually guaranteed a prime spot on some loon's list of "SELF-HATING JEWS!". The insoluble problem of all states based on religion or 'race' apply: political objections are all too easily represented as anti-religious, racist or unpatriotic. The reasonable voice of the middle ground becomes inaudible over the screams of the fanatics.

Every Saturday, a group of Israeli Jews drive down to the rural areas south of Hebron in the West Bank and escort Palestinian shepherds as they graze their flocks. Today I accompany them on their 'operation'. The reason behind this weekly jaunt is to prevent conflicts arising between the shepherds and some of the Israelis who inhabit a fortressed settlement (originally illegal, now legal) on the other side of the hill from the Palestinian villages. In the past the shepherds have been refused the right to graze their own land by settlers, and Israeli police naturally take the side of their countrymen in disputes. The theory is that the presence of Israelis and internationals (like me) discourages violence or unethical behaviour. Today's operation is lent urgency by the events of the previous day, which are related by an international volunteer who lives in the Palestinian village for months at a time to document any signs of aggression by the Israeli settlers. We sit with the men of the village and drink tea on a concrete terrace as he gives us the grist for an appealing short story.

A group of settlers had come to the village, with police, to confront the villagers over the theft of some cherries from one of their orchards. "I saw an empty bag of cherries lying on the ground," says the volunteer, "but I told them that this wasn't the way to solve the problem." The settlers set about both the international volunteers, headbutting one and breaking the camera of another. The Palestinian villagers also bore the brunt of this physical attack. Black eyes are in evidence during our tea party, tentatively hidden behind sunglasses. What set this fracas apart from other experiences, he says, was that the police made no attempt to break up the fight or restrain the Israelis. They did, however, arrest any Palestinian pointed out by their countrymen. The international volunteers, working for a Christian peace organisation, caught everything on video. Digital cameras are a necessary form of protection here.

The police arrive today, too, and break up the tea party by questioning one of our group, a known Israeli activist. We leave the village and walk over a sandy ridge to summit of the next hill, from where we can command a view of the whole valley. Settlers were spotted in the area this morning, so we stand guard for an hour at our post. Israeli army jeeps begin to arrive and congregate a hundred metres away, watching us: eight jeeps for five peaceful activists. We enjoy the absurdity of the situation and the irony that had there been a fight between settlers and shepherds this morning, only half the man power would have been deployed. After a while and some more tea with the villagers, because we can, we leave.