1st, November 2008
See more photos of the group day
We left for Teqoa', ready for a new day of olive picking. The field we were aiming to pick olives at is adjacent to the settlement of Teqoa'. As we walked down the hills and came closer to the field, we could see some soldiers watching our moves. The closer we got to the field the more soldiers started showing up, both on foot and in their jeeps. When we reached the fields there were already both soldiers and settlers waiting for us. The farmers had not been able to reach their lands for a long time, thus leaving the olive trees in a relatively bad condition. Unfortunately, there were not many olives waiting to be picked. Instead of picking olives, many of the group members were engaged in conversations with settlers or/and soldiers. It was 
very interesting hearing their (Israeli settlers) point of view on life in a nation that they believe is given to them by God.
Some group members tried to move from the one field to the other, but as they came down the valley, soldiers and police forced them of the land. Neither the settlers nor the soldiers showed any form of aggression towards the group. After the encounter on the olive groves, Taysir Adu Afarrah greeted us at Teqoa' municipality. We sat down and discussed today's happenings and experiences.
Coming back from Teqoa we stopped at Herodion Palace. Herodion was built as a palace and a fortress by Herodion the Great. The view from Herodion was amazing, but it also gave a grim overlook of the many settlements in the area. After Herodion we went to a visit with ARIJ (Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem). At the ARIJ we were given a power point presentation and briefing about the current situation in the occupied Palestinian territories by Suhail Khalilieh. After the briefing, the General Director Jad Isaq, answered questions from the audience.
Although today was not a great day of olive harvesting, we had a lot of interesting interacting between the group and Israeli settlers, police and soldiers.
