Weekend in Yanoon

• "One of the major obstacles on the road to peace and justice in this region is the settler problem.
  The settler problem is quite obvious in Hebron where they have taken over large parts of the old city and frequently attack the Palestinians but it is present all over the west bank, even in the quietest and most remote areas.
  Yanoun is a great illustration of this. Yanoun is a quite little village in the mountains behind Nablus. Up until a few years ago 500 people lived peacefully with sheep and olive trees. One day the IDF and the police started using the area as training grounds, shooting target practice, flying fighter jets at low altitudes, trying new bombs and equipment. Then the settlements nearby decided it was too nice a place to be left to Palestinians and undetonated ammunition. They got closer and more aggressive and started regularly harassing and assaulting the villagers until all but two families had fled. The village started receiving international and Israeli volunteers who came to discourage the settlers from coming. The departed families agreed to return to their homes only with the promise that there would be a constant international presence in the village.
  After a period of disorganized international presence during which different NGOs and movements sent volunteers but with no coordination the EAPPI took over responsibility for the international presence. EAPPI is the program that sends EAs everywhere... Today there are 100 people living in Yanoun plus a team of three or four EAs at all times." (excerpt taken from Gilbert's blog, who went to Yanoon with me, http://gilbertglad.wordpress.com/)

Yanoon is a tiny village just 10 kilometers South-East of Nablus. It consists of a dozen houses on a mountain, with olive tree farms all around it. All of the villagers are involved in the olive market. Right across the Yanoon village mountain, is another (higher) mountain with a large Israeli settlement. In the 1980’s the village people were abused by the settlers on a daily basis that lead all the village people to leave except for two families. Their only condition to return to their village was to have international presence at all times. Twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. The presence of international people keeps the settlers away so they can pick olives in peace.
The weekend of October 26th, we were asked to go to Yanoon for that exact reason. Our job was to help the villagers pick olives, walk around their two (and only) streets, and be visible. And so the interesting weekend began.
Even though this village is only 10km away, it took us two full hours to arrive. First, we had to take a service bus to Howwarah checkpoint, then cross the checkpoint by foot, and then take another service bus to the town of Aqraba. From Aqraba we had the choice of either walking to Yanoon, or riding donkeys up. Unfortunately we had no donkeys to ride, so we hiked for a whole hour, carrying our luggage, going up a mountain, to get to the village! My leg muscles were so sore by the time we reached. I was out of breath and sweat was dripping down my shirt, even though it was a very cool evening. As tiring as it was, the walk was not so bad since we caught the sunset. The colours of the sky were breathtaking, and the appearance of a white moon made it all worthwhile. Of course we stopped a few times to take some snapshots.
We arrived to the Interntionals’ house. As expected, there was absolutely no form of entertainment available! No tv, computer, radio, nothing. There weren’t any restaurants around, or coffee shops… absolutely nothing to do past 5.30pm (sunset). Luckily there was an argeeleh, so we smoked and talked the whole night.
Next morning, I woke up from the sound of the sheep passing by. Not to mention the smell of the manure that made it a little difficult to have a good night sleep. Beau and I walked down the mount to the olive fields. Gilbert stayed behind to walk around the village to be seen. As we were walking through the fields of olives, we came across a bunch of farmers who quickly recognised who we were. They took us to the olive trees to help them pick. Of course, as every Nabulsi would do, they made us tea and brought it straight to our tree. We drank the delicious tea (from which the water came from a nearby well) while we were tangled between the branches. A few trees later, we rested with the villager. He told us stories of the occupation and how the olive tree is the villagers best friend; all it does is give, (olives, oil, wood) and doesn’t expect anything in return.
We left the olive tree field to walk around the long roads between Yanoon and the nearby village. Many of the trees were “Roman” which means that they have been around since the Roman Empire 1900+ years ago. According to the villagers, these roman trees are sometimes uprooted to be sold to rich Arabs and Israeli’s to plant in their backyards. I personally don’t think that any amount of money can buy the history that a Roman olive tree carries.
After mingling with some village children, we walked back to our house by sunset. We discussed how awesome it would’ve been if we had our own donkeys when we were kids. Every family owns at least a couple of donkeys where children as young at 7 ride them!
That night was no different from the first. I sat outside to gaze at the stars and the views of the mountains ahead of me. The only thing that was damaging the view was the bright white light from the settlement that pointed straight towards Yanoon. It was so bright that I had to actually turn away because my eyes couldn’t take it anymore. By 10pm, all the streetlights went off. It was dark, silent and the only thing I heard was a dog barking from the other nearby village. I couldn’t believe how silent it was.

(check out the pictures! Link on the left hand side)