Yanun is located south of Nablus. The Occupation has confiscated 80% of its 16,450 dunums. The people of Yanun are able to access 10% of their agricultural land through coordination and permits from the Occupation. The land is located near settlements, and accessing it is of the utmost difficulty on account of the Israeli procedures which work to prevent people from obtaining permits. But the remaining 10% is what the people of the village have to work with.
After Oslo, the land of Yanun was broken into two parts. A part was designated Area B remained under partial Palestinian control. What is now called Kherbet Yanun is in Area C and under complete Israeli control. Building and expansion is prohibited.
Around 40 families live in the part of Yanun now considered Area B. Six families, some 36 people in total, live in Area C. The Occupation’s ongoing assaults and day-to-day difficulties it creates have pushed 18 families out of the village. Previously, there were 300 people in the village.
The settlements
Settlements surround Kherbet Yanun, with smaller outposts spreading out from the larger settlement of Itatmar; Jefat Olam Efri Aaron to the west, Khadainim to the north, and 777 to th east. Recently, settlers have begun work on two new outposts in the northwest and the southeast.
Current situation in the village
In the past, the villager’s income depended on agriculture and animals. However, with 80% of the village’s land confiscated, and assaults and other Occupation policies, agricultural production has been severely restricted. This situation has in turn affected villagers’ ability to raise animals, forcing them to purchase fodder year round to provide for their animals. Previously, fodder was only purchased at certain times of the year, and now the current system increases costs and makes raising animals an unsustainable venture.
“Occupation forces distributed an order to village residents to remove the potable water line to Kherbet Yanun.”
The time granted to farmers to access their land is extremely short, and often granted at grossly unsuitable times, ranging from two to four days a year. This short period of access effectively makes it impossible to care of the land, to say nothing of fully harvesting olives during the season.
Settlers assault villagers nearly daily; they kill sheep, attack farmers and children, and pollute the well that villagers use to water. Settlers have also thrown stones at vehicles, and threatened to kill residents if they remain in the village. In total, settlers have killed 120 animals and cut down 800 trees.
Rashdi Fahmi Murar, one resident of the Kherbet Yanun, “Yanun used to be a paradise, but they have turned it into hell. But despite everything, I will not leave my home, except for the grave."