Yanun, Aqraba

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Observers: 
Natalie Cohen, Rachel Alon, Naomi Bentsur (reporting), Nadim (driving) Translator: Charles K.
Jan-28-2014
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Morning
Seriously? Does this make us safer?

 

The day before our shift the director of the Hars club notified us the Hebrew lesson was cancelled because some of the women have to participate in another village activity.  Since we had time, we decided to go on a tour and also an investigation.

 

09:30  We left the Rosh Ha’ayin train station.  Very little traffic all along Highway 5.  We saw no military vehicles.

10:0  Tapuach junction.  Two cars in the compound.  A solitary armed soldier is stationed on the hill across the way.  A left turn off the main road brings us to a half-paved road to Aqraba, which is in Area B.  Bags of fertilizer are scattered among the olive trees along the way.  Plowed fields on both sides of the road.  The main street in Aqraba, a relatively large village with some 10,000 residents, is full of life.  Shops are open, small cafes, barbershops and beauty parlors, pharmacies, stylish dress stores next to “old clothes” stands of every kind.  Children who are still on vacation bicycle among the cars.  Frameworks of new buildings under construction are scattered through the village.

We leave Aqraba (we’ll return later), turn onto a side path leading up a hill.  We see the settlement of Itamar before us; it’s grown and expanded, now spread over three ridges.

We’re headed for the tiny village of Yanun which has a total of 80 residents.  It lies opposite Itamar, in Area C.  A few homes are scattered along the rocky path, a few sheepfolds, between them small, cultivated plots of land.  The residents have surrounded them with a kind of fence – hundreds of black tires and heavy boulders which give the place a gloomy, bleak feeling.  Is that the local solution to not being able to build a real fence in Area C because they’re afraid the occupying army will demolish it?

 

Nadim skillfully navigates the steep, winding road to the top of the hill.  There are two large and relatively massive buildings there, compared to the dilapidated structures scattered along the road.  There’s a large sign in English on the building to the right.  It’s where the European volunteers live, the ecumenicals, members of EAPPI.  It’s empty at this hour.  They’ve all gone to the checkpoints and to troublesome locations on the West Bank.  Their presence in Yanun provides some protection against harassment by settlers from Itamar, as we’ll describe below.

The second structure is a school.  We talk to the principal and two teachers who are there (the children are still on vacation).  The school has four classes, first through fourth grade.  How many children?  Seven.  The two classrooms are spacious, clean and well-equipped.  Children in higher grades travel daily to school in Aqraba.  We ask where the municipality building – the baladiyya – is.  The teachers grin in embarrassment.  Yanun has no municipality.  For the past two years the village’s affairs have been run by the Aqraba municipality.

 

So we retrace our steps, to the Aqraba municipality.  Two engineers working on construction plans tell us about conditions in Yanun, their poor neighbor.  Settlers from Itamar harass them repeatedly.  The worst incident occurred three months ago.  Armed settlers came with a bulldozer and began working under the protection of soldiers in an army jeep.  Villagers from Yanun and Aqraba confronted them and were attacked.  Six villagers were injured.  The attackers withdrew after the European volunteers hurried there and contacted the Israeli DCO.

One of the engineers shows us photos of the incident on his computer:  one shows a settler pointing his weapon at the villagers; a jeep and soldiers behind him watch without intervening.  Another photo shows two of the European volunteers trying to separate the settlers and the villagers they’re beating.  The engineers say the villages used to have 144,000 dunums.  At least 100,000 were confiscated by Itamar’s settlers.

 

There’s a noticeable military presence on our way back.  A command car appears from the direction of Highway 5 and drives toward Yanun.  A second military vehicle is parked by the roadside.  An additional jeep appears from the direction of Kifl-Hars.

 

12:15  We return to Rosh Ha”Ayin.