About fifteen minutes later a dozen more soldiers arrived. Some shook hands with settlers, gave them hugs and hi-fives, and joked with them. When the settlers would be firing their guns, the soldiers would say "Hey, hey, you can't do that," not exactly seriously.

At one point a settler was aiming his gun at a crowd of Palestinians. One of us shouted to one of the soldiers, "Arrest him!" The soldier replied, "He is allowed to aim his gun at others as long as he does not shoot." The soldier did nothing. So an elderly Israeli peace activist moved in front of the settler's gun. Every time a settler pointed his gun at someone, this seventy year old man would stand in front of it, with the barrel pointed at his chest.

Actually, we did see one soldier put himself squarely between a settler's gun barrel and a villager.

Later, other soldiers arrived. The villagers were beginning to carry out the plan. They sat down, silently-their message: "We are absolutely in control and unafraid." The Israeli commander told us that this was a closed military zone and that we had to leave. We argued that it was not. The soldiers seemed stumped. They knew we were right. So they finally asked the settlers to leave. Some of our group told the military that they couldn't expect the settlers to
just wander away-they would have to move them away. The soldiers finally did move the enraged settlers up the hill, and away.