On the festival of Lag Ba'Omer, which falls tonight, Jewish communities traditionally hold bonfire events. As in previous years, children and youth from the Israeli settlement in the Palestinian city of Hebron have been collecting wood for the last few days. Lots of it.

They even got some help from a friendly Israeli soldier.

This would all be perfectly harmless, except for the fact that the wood (furniture and doors) were stolen from a Palestinian store in Hebron's gold market, which was closed down by Israeli authorities following the 1994 Goldstein Massacre.

Worse still - the bonfire was planned to be held in the neighborhood of Tel Romeida, on private Palestinian land (close to the home of HR defender @Issaamro). The neighborhood has for some time been at the heart of settlers' efforts to "Judaize" Hebron.

Only once the family brought in lawyers to make it clear that the bonfire could not be held on their land, the settlers were ordered to remove the wood they'd prepared for the bonfire...

...Not without some assistance from IDF soldiers (who were also made to guard the stolen wood during the night).

If this was the first time this was happening, it may have been surprising. But it's been happening for years. Here's a soldier who served between 2002-05 describing the very same thing.

So what does the IDF-settler relationship look like and how does it work?
Here’s an enlightening read for the weekend: a booklet soldiers' testimonies called “The High Command - Settlers' Influence on IDF Conduct in the West Bank” https://www.breakingthesilence.org.il/inside/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/THC_Eng_210318.pdf