Shabbat on an Israeli Settlement

On our trip as a congregation, we had two tour guides and three kids counselours. Wen have already seen one of the kids counselours, and for shabbat one of the tour guides invited us to come visit his settlement. I don't know very much about how the settlement was made, but here is an article I found online. (just skim it, if its too long)

"Ofra's establishment was part of a struggle between the Gush Emunim settlement movement, which was founded in February 1974, and the Israeli Labor government, which opposed Israeli settlement amid densely populated Palestinian areas. The establishing group first obtained jobs at a nearby military base on Mount Baal Hatsor, then in April 1975 got permission to sleep over in the abandoned barracks of a Jordanian army base, but then brought in their families and raised an Israeli flag. Though opposed by then Prime Minister, Rabin, and perhaps because of his opposition, Ofra was given the political backing by Shimon Peres, then a leading member of Rabin's government. After the Labour Party was defeated by the Likud Party in the 1977 Israeli election, the new government recognized Ofra as a community and paving the way for expansion into the surrounding hills.
Most of the now built-up land in Ofra was non-inhabitable rocky terrain belonging to absentee landlords who controlled much of the territory including that now occupied by nearby Arab villages of Betein (Biblical Bet El), ‘Ein Yabrud (Moslem), Silwad (Moslem), and a-Tayba (Christian). Building is in accordance with a government plan for regional development. Haaretz reports in June 2007 that 179 of the 600 buildings in Ofra are considered illegal by the Israeli administration, a somewhat surprising statistic since the infrastructure was provided by the government, which also provided preferential mortgages."

At about 3:00, Yishay, the tour guide picked us up at our house. When we got there it was about 4:00, a few hours till shabbat, so we just got ready for shabbat, and met the family. His wife is from Canada, so she works in the translation business, English and Hebrew.  That night, my dad and I, along with Yishay, went to services.

The next day, we went to services, and after, when we went home and changed, we decided to go to the park.  So we played on the structure for a while and then I decided to take a walk by myself.  While I was walking a few boys asked me who I was and how old I was, in Hebrew of course, and where I was from, also in Hebrew.  I told them my name was Micah, I was 11 years old, and I was from America, but after that they started saying things that were too complicated for me to understand so I had to call my dad who speaks better Hebrew than me.  He helped me understand and from there the conversation branched out to music and movies.  They like a lot of the same music as me especially the Black Eyed Peas and Akon.  But they also like some Hebrew music that I don't know and the few Hebrew songs that I knew, they don't know. 

signed,