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Blake and I have just returned from Yanoun this afternoon to Jerusalem to attend the ISM training in Ramallah in the morning. We are staying at the Golden Gate Hostel in the Old City and will more than likely spend the night in Ramallah tomorrow.

Yanoun was an absolutely tremendous experience. Along with Adam and Ben from the ISM we aided and maintained an international presence in the village that has been continuous since last fall beginning before the olive harvest. The villagers wish to continue the presence for an undetermined length of time.

The village has set up an International House where all internationals stay while in Yanoun. There are two sleeping rooms, a kitchen, and a bathroom. The house is located at the base of the main village in Upper Yanoun as to promote immediate contact with the settlers if they come into town (pictures will be provided upon return to the States).

There are several settlements surrounding the village. The nearest rings the hillsides on all sides of Upper Yanoun. Lower Yanoun is down one road to the East approximately 1 km away. One has to pass through the village's agricultural fields to get to Lower Yanoun from Upper Yanoun and the road is the only one still accessible by the Palestinians as the settlers have closed off all others. The settlement on the hillsides maintain a watchtower over the village and a roving spotlight keeps the little valley and village lit up at night in an intimidating fashion.

The village economy has been hard hit since the arrival of the settlement in 1996 as the settlers have confiscated much of the farmland and poisoned a herd of sheep. We participated in a pepper harvest this morning that will be sold at small markets in the neighboring, larger Palestinian village of Aqrabah.

Many families fled Yanoun last fall after the settlers, under the leadership of a surly older man named Victor, threatened to kill the villagers if they did not leave. Of the ten families eight left and two stayed behind including the family of Abu Haniyye. After two days, with the help of internationals and some help from the army the villagers were able to return. Some, of course, decided to stay in Aqrabah or move elsewhere. Even after two days the settlers had already begun to dig up the fields and prepare for a complete takeover of Yanoun. In the past, the generator that provides electric energy to the village at night was also destroyed. Since then, with the help of the United Nations and the EU, another generator was installed with a massive lock to keep out the settlers.

It is the responsibility of the internationals to turn on and off the generator in the evenings between 7:30pm and 11pm-12am. No one ever goes alone as an attack from the settlers can occur at any time.

The village has experienced relative calm since the arrival of the internationals. There have been some clashes and all are recorded in an information book left at the house. The confrontations and observances will be transcribed soon for the IWPS and will be sent to CCMEP and the ISM as well.

The most recent clash occurred a few days before our arrival as Victor came into Upper Yanoun. He came directly to the Interantional House and demanded to find out how many were there. At the time there were two: Tim with the ISM and Matt, an ecumenical from the UK. Victor yelled, "Why are you here?" and Matt responded "Why are you ("you" pronounced with emphasis) here?" "THIS IS MY COUNTRY!" Victor bellowed and drove away. As stated before, the settlement has existed since 1996. In the case of one Palestinian family in Yanoun, they have lived there for seven generations.

The people of Yanoun have no weapons, very little money, and subsequently nothing to protect themselves from the usurping of land and violent attacks from settlers who receive government support from Israel and American tax dollars to continue their onslaught.