Protective presence doesn’t work anymore
A protective presence activists films an armed settler harassing Palestinian residents of Ras Ein al-Auja, a village in the West Bank, December 2024.
Andrey X writes in Vashti on 19 Oct 2025:
“What are you doing here?” we ask the soldier, two phone cameras pointed at her face. “None of your business” she answers, visibly uncomfortable, refusing to look us in the eye.
She and her brigade had shut down the main road leading through the Palestinian town of Auja in the Jordan Valley near Jericho, closing all the stores and blocking traffic. Almost immediately, a store owner in the town called us and requested we provide protective presence and record the army invasion.
This is unfortunately a common occurrence in the West Bank. The army invades a community, shuts it down, and often detains people. They justify it with abstract “security concerns”, or claim that a Palestinian threw stones at someone. The stone-throwing is usually made up, but even when it’s not, closing down the whole village as a response amounts to collective punishment — a crime that violates the Fourth Geneva Convention.
“Why did you shut down the town?” we press on. Still no response. A few minutes later, the soldiers pack up, get back into their vehicle and drive away. They don’t like being filmed when they are harassing Palestinians.
With the road clear, we also pack up and return to the Bedouin community of Ras al-Auja. We escort the community’s trucks on their way to collect water from the local stream. When Palestinians go alone, they are often attacked by settlers, who threaten them, throw stones, and try to steal their equipment. When we escort the trucks, the settlers limit themselves to filming back and shouting at us.