00:00Israeli settlers from a nearby illegal outpost drive slowly past this Palestinian home.
00:05Their presence is a constant and fills local residents with dread.
00:09The family rushes from their fields to the courtyard of their summer house.
00:13They come every day, threatening and intimidating us.
00:17What kind of life is this?
00:18We need someone to protect us.
00:20We need protection.
00:22There is no one to protect us but God.
00:25Their house sits on the outskirts of the town of Sinjil in the occupied West Bank.
00:30Settlers regularly attack the town and the outskirts bear the brunt of it and it has become worse.
00:37Settlers established this illegal outpost only recently, one of the many in the West Bank.
00:43To deal with the threat, people here have created social media groups to warn others in real time,
00:49says Baha Foucaha from the Municipal Council.
00:54I film and document.
00:56When there's any attack, I let the guys know.
00:58I send a message to all the groups in Sinjil, to the young people, that there is a settler here.
01:06Once it gets dark, Palestinian neighborhood watchers jump into action.
01:11Unarmed volunteers stand guard at the edges of the town.
01:15So this is the reality here in the occupied West Bank.
01:19These people behind me are protecting their town from settler attacks.
01:24There's no one else to do it.
01:27Guys, we are here at the spot.
01:29There is suspicious movement by settlers.
01:31If you are able to come, come quickly, come.
01:36Reports come in of a possible intrusion by a few settlers from the other side of the hill.
01:41Some volunteers spread out in the dark.
01:44They say it is dangerous, as most settlers are armed.
01:49We read via the chat groups that there were some settlers in between the houses.
01:53So the folks from the protection committees rushed out to protect those houses.
01:58Palestinian police are not allowed to operate here unless coordinated with the Israeli military.
02:04The town lies in so-called areas B and C, which are under shared or full control of the Israeli
02:10military.
02:12Videos provided by the volunteers show some of the settler attacks in the area in recent weeks.
02:18This volunteer tells us they are the Palestinians' last defense.
02:21The Israeli police and army side with the settlers, allowing them to act with no accountability.
02:29The village lives in fear.
02:31They've surrounded it with fences, earth mounds and iron gates.
02:35No one supports us or asks about us.
02:38If we don't stand up for this village and protect it, no one will.
02:41In the absence of security, security becomes everyone's responsibility.
02:47These volunteers know they can do little against an armed settler attack, but their presence still matters to the people
02:54here, and sometimes that's enough.
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