Hi,
Now it is several weeks since I returned back home after three months in the West Bank, mainly in Yanoun, a small traditional village southeast of Nablus. During those three months I worked as an "Ecumenical Accompanier" which I explained in my first report. That will be my first contribution to my new blog:
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The village that could have been an idyllic spot…

A small Palestinian village – Yanoun – with olive trees, thousands of years old, sheep and crowing cocks in a hilly landscape with a view over Jordan Valley. It sounds almost like an idyllic spot…

Yanoun is a small village on the West Bank, the west side of Jordan Valley, in the Palestinian area that was occupied by Israel during the Six Day War 1967 – and which still is occupied by Israel. According to the mayor of the village, Rashid, the name ”Yanoun” is a canaanite word, that is more than three thousand years old and which means ”tranquillity”.

Because of the occupation, the Palestinians on the West Bank suffer from a lot of restrictions in their daily life. It applies especially to all kinds of travels and transports, which often become extremely troublesome and slow due to:

– A large number of military checkpoints which have to be passed.

– A lot of detours the Israel army force the Palestinians to take in order to keep them away from the settlements which Israelis have build on the West Bank and from a number of roads that are reserved for Israelis only.

Two groups of Palestinians are extremely affected by the occupation: those who live next to the barrier which Israel is building to prevent Palestinians to enter Israel and big settlements and those who live close to the settlements. Only a minor part of the barrier is built along the internationally recognized border between Israel and Palestine, what is called the Green Line and which was the border before the Six Day War. The most part of the barrier winds itself on Palestinian area so that a number of settlements end up on the ”Israelian” side. The fact that a big part of the barrier is built on occupied territory and not along the border is the reason why the International Court of Justice has declared those parts illegal.

Because of how the barrier is constructed also large areas of Palestinian land has ended up on the wrong side, that is on the other side of the barrier from where the land owners are living. Every morning a large number of farmers have to queue to pass military garded gates in the barrier to be able to work on their fields on the ”Israelian” side. Those who may pass the gates are only those who have got special permits by the army. They have to pass only during those hours when the gates are open and they have to regularly renew their permits.

Those Palestinians who live next to religiously and nationally motivated settlements also have to endure frequent harassments by settlers who regard the West Bank as part of the ”Promised land” they according to the Bibel consider as theirs. (There are also other settlements, with settlers who live on the West Bank because of economic reasons, because they can get houses and apartements much cheaper than inside Israel.)

On the West Bank, where the land starts de descend towards the Jordan Valley you will find Yanoun, with about one hundred residents. It’s an old village, known for its olive trees, of which the oldest ones are said to be two thousand years old, and for its olive oil, which is said to be the best in Palestine – at least according to the people in Yanoun… It could have been an idyllic spot, if it hadn’t been for a number of small settlement outposts from a bigger settlement, Itamar, in the area.
These outposts are on the hilltops around Yanoun and is the reason why the village was almost totally abandoned 2002. The residents of Yanoun had at that time been harassed by the settlers in Itamar for several years. Afer five settlers had been killed by a Palestinian, Yanoun was attacked by settlers who beat all men they could find, killed a lot of sheep, polluted the well, burned an electric generator etc. All residents in the village, except two, left Yanoun. The whole story was reported in media and soon volonteers arrived from Israeli and other peace organizations to try to establish an international presence in the village to prevent settlers from taking over the whole village and to provide enough security so the residents would dare to return to their village.

Some of the residents did return, but they have to all the time adapt to the settlers on the hilltops around the the village. They can’t come to close to them and large parts of the land that the people in Yanoun traditionally have used for pasture etc have become inaccessible. Settlers, always armed, make frequent provoking ”visits” in the village or are passing over the fields close to the village, so the residents can never totally relax. However, it is obvious that the international presence is very important to prevent more serious actions and violence from the settlers.

Since 2004 the the World Council of Churches’ Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) is responsible for the permanent international presence in Yanoun and from the middle of November this year until the beginning of February 2009 I am one of the four members in the EAPPI-team which will try to make life a little more bearable for the residents of Yanoun, the village that could have been an idyllic spot…

(I worked for the Christian Council of Sweden as an Ecumenical Accompanier, serving on the World Council of Churches’ Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI). The views contained in this report are personal and do not necessarily reflect those of the Christian Council of Sweden or the World Council of Churches. If you would like to publish or disseminate it further, please first contact the EAPPI communications officer and managing editor (eappi-co@jrol.com) for permission. For mor information see: www.eappi.org/en/home.html).