Pat's Palestine Blog 2

Daily life and Daily Tragedy in Yanoun

In some ways it was a relief to head north to visit the village of Yanoun, where I will be spending my 3 months together with my Norwegian, Swedish and South African team mates. Yanoun is in a very beautiful location, nestling among limestone hills reminiscent of the Peak District. Sheep are the main business of the village and we met the mayor of the village, as he grazed his sheep between the olive trees in the valley below the International House, where we will stay. Taking in the scene around us we picked out the animal sheds, which belong to the Israeli Settlers who live on the hill tops surrounding the village and who are the reason for our presence.

Left - Our team in front of the International House (Sonti, Silje, Pat, Tor) in Upper Yanoun

Right - The new team being shown the ropes: Walking to Lower Yanoun

We cannot see the houses of the settlers, but the village is surrounded on 3 sides by the illegal outpost buildings of the Itamar settlement, some of the settler animal sheds are only 400 metres from the houses of Upper Yanoun. In 2002, the harassment of villagers by settlers became so severe – village men being beaten in front of their children, animals mutilated, crops destroyed – that all the villagers left for Aqraba, the nearest larger village under full Palestinian control. Israeli and international-l peace groups came to the Yanoun to provide a protective presence and slowly, the villagers came back, about 80 in number. The Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme has had a permanent presence in the village since June 2003. In recent years the village has been relatively quiet, but the relentless incremental acquisition of the village land by the settlers continues.

We have now been back in Yanoun for almost a week and are getting used to the rhythm of village life. Life here begins between 4-5am By 7am the shepherds are out with the sheep on the lower slopes of the hills ( all that is now left to them for pasture) and the women have started bread making in the tabouns (the small outbuildings which house a sunken cooking fire) We try to take a walk between 7-8 am just to see that all is well and observe any changes on the hilltops – we may call in to one of the houses to buy fresh food for breakfast.

Left - Cheesemaking

Right - Rashid, Mayor of Yanoun

The women milk the sheep twice a day and make cheese, and yoghurt. They also keep hens for the eggs and the children have rabbits for the pot. The sheeps milk is a real treat on cereal, much better than our shop semi skimmed variety! The village has about 400 acres planted with olive trees and 100 acres planted with almonds figs vines etc. There seems to be a small amount of wheat and vegetables and herbs are often planted between the olive trees. So it could really be the good life, if the villagers were not prevented from tending their olive trees nearest the settlement outposts and only allowed one day to harvest with military protection, instead of 8-10 days. Moreover Israel no longer allows them to export their produce beyond the West Bank

The younger children start school in the village at 8am and the school bus collects the older

ones to take them to school in Aqraba about 3 miles away. Aqraba has a population of about 10,000 and has shops for all our basic needs. The road to Aqraba is the only way out of Yanoun as the direct road to Nablus and it’s surrounding villages has been closed by the Israeli military. This means that very circuitous routes have to be taken to nearby villages, but more of that next time. Meanwhile I’ll let the children of Yanoun have the last word....