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On the ride to al-Auja, a Palestinian town north of Jericho, about fifty Israeli peace activists jotted down their names, phone numbers and ID numbers on a sheet of paper. It was the last Saturday of August and they were about to begin a protest march against settler violence with 150 other activists, both Israeli and Palestinian.
Should one of the participants be arrested during the protest, explained Mia Biran, the Israeli program manager of the anti-occupation NGO Combatants for Peace over the bus loudspeaker, the information will help the group locate them and provide legal aid. "The march isn't coordinated [with the army], because there's no way we would have gotten approval. Like nearly all things that happen in the West Bank, like building, this isn't legal. There's no way for it to be legal," she said.
The impetus for the protest was the ongoing attempts by Israeli settlers to prevent the area's residents from accessing the al-Auja stream, which flows between the dusty banks of the Jordan Valley. It is a source of water for the community as well as a rare place of respite, and has been a site of settler provocation since October 7.
"We're Israelis and Palestinians who have come to say, 'no more occupation, no more war, no more settler violence, no more military violence, no more stealing resources from Palestinians who live in the West Bank and outside of it," Biran said.
The march, which was organized by Combatants for Peace, was to be wholly nonviolent. "We don't want to clash with anyone," Biran announced – not the army and not any settlers who may come through. "It's not just important for us, but for the residents of al-Auja and Ras Ayn al-Auja, which is nearby. If we make any commotion, they're the ones who have to cope with it," she said, urging participants to comply with any requests from the army or police. In the meantime, she instructed participants to lock their phones in the event that they are confiscated by soldiers.
On the bus was Ma'ayan,...