ABSTRACT
Last night at ten o’clock a friend in Marda called to say the Army was uprooting trees near the road. My colleague Hannah and I rushed to the scene where we found two jeeps and a van patrolling the area as a bulldozer dug out tree after tree. The soldiers were not pleased to see us and tried to make us leave. We asked them why they were uprooting trees in the middle of the night and they said, “This is no place Tor two girls at night.” Each time we repeated our question the soldiers would answer, “All we want is for you to be safe. Now go home.” Finally one soldier answered. He said some boys from the village had put rocks in the road, causing a car accident between a Palestinian and a settler. Hannah said to me that she recognized the story and had heard it used before to justify collective punishment. We wondered whether or not it was true.
