15th November
Bethlehem.
The smiles of last week’s concert have gone. Last night the Israeli army revisited the house of the two girls I mentioned in a previous entry, and stayed for three hours – between 2 o’clock and 5 o’clock. As I slept easily, a few streets away the family were subjected to a search of their property along with questioning. The army was looking for the youngest brother – the one who has not (yet) been detained for reasons of ‘security’, or ‘terrorism’.
A few weeks ago, the army took in one of the friends of this younger brother. As a result of this, and knowing the Israeli army’s habit of extracting the names of friends from people, the younger brother had been sleeping elsewhere, in a fear that turned out to be justified.
How are these people expected to sleep? I can understand why the girls in the house will find it difficult, in the days ahead at least – what I can’t understand is how the men and women of the Israeli army can.
