On Friday 5.11.10 had two groups out in the field. One which went out to Jayyus and helped Palestinians there with limited access to their fields finish harvesting the 40 trees we began the day before. There were no negative incidents for this group.a phone call from a bedridden Jamilla informed me happily that our help had made a real difference.
The second group left later in the day (8:30 a.m.) with Arik for Jit and Kedumim, and consisted mainly of rabbinical students, rabbis and some spouses.. The first couple of hours went by peacefully enough, apparently under the surveillance of suspicious eyes in the settlement above them.
and then a call from Arik asking for the Samhat's (local battalions; second in charge)phone number which  indicated what Zakaria later confirmed that they had run into trouble with the army .
It was only today in our meeting of field and legal staff that I learned that the help of the legal staff(Avital) had made a difference and the farmers and volunteers were able to continue

 

On Monday, November 8th, 5 volunteers went to Kedumim this morning to accompany the Dahiyeh family from the village of Kadum (80 year old widow and some of her children and their families, including an uncle who came especially from Jordan for the occasion). They went into the settlement under army protection, and with police accompaniment, to harvest their olives from trees that have now been encompassed by the settlement despite being on their recognized private Palestinian land. The army limited our accompaniment to only 5 volunteers, so that we would not cause a "provocation". The day went by peacefully and without incident until 15:00 when the army guards asked everyone to leave, apparently out of boredom. The resultant consultation led to the decision to stay until 16;00, which would not have been possible without our intervention, according to the Palestinians. Our volunteers pointed out that the agreed upon harvest schedule for the day was until 16:00, and after some verbal  interchange with the soldiers this was accepted and everyone continued to work until 16:00.

The family requested our f help to return again to the same area the next  day pointing out that there were still about 40 trees left to harvest.  After many phone calls from Zakaria and myself and with the help of the humanitarian hotline, leading to a late night phone call announcing permission, another day was scheduled for the next day.