Features

Israel and Palestine: a personal view of the impacts of an occupation

December 15, 2004

Church of Scotland research officer Iain Connon reports on his visit to Israel/Palestine with the World Council of Churches' Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme.

Iain Connon worked as a research officer with the Church of Scotland’s Church and Nation Committee. In August 2004 he went to work for three months in Israel/Palestine.

The communities in which he worked were Jayous and Janoun, both in the West Bank and both mostly economically dependent on agriculture now that very few workers can get permission to work in Israel. He also spent time in Israel and was in contact with Israeli peace groups.

The small town of Jayous, with a population of about 3,000, sits on a hill surrounded by olive trees about 50km north of Jerusalem and near the border with Israel. Double entanglements of razor wire, a couple of ditches and a high, steel, electric sensored fence now separate the town from most of its olive trees, grazing and cultivated land. Farmers who have been able to get permission to cross the fence can only reach their land through a guarded gate, open for limited periods, and not always open on time.

Janoun is a little village, south east of Nablus, of about 100 people, where intimidation by armed Israeli settlers is a constant threat. The villagers can only harvest the better part of their important olive crop during the few days that Israel gives them a guard of armed soldiers to protect them.

While he was in Palestine Iain sent regular letters to Scotland. The following stories are extracts from his last letter before he returned to Scotland just before Christmas.

Jayyous
A D10, which is the biggest bull dozer that you can find, had started work to level land for a new town of 2,500 houses on the land cultivated by the farmers of Jayyous. Now you might ask how this can be. How can a Jewish company start to build a new town on land used and owned by Palestinians? Why was it that they had no notification that this was about to happen? Where was the plan? How many houses were to be built? How would the farmers get to their grazing land, fields, orchards, greenhouses and water when the tracks to them were built over? By helicopter?

Yanoon
I had a change and went to visit the small village of Yanoon, really just a cluster of houses on the side of a hill overlooking a little glen, but with olives instead of birch. The reason we are there is that Yanoon is under siege. The hills around it are being settled by religious Jewish families. From the village we could see their caravans and trailers, fenced in, with watchtowers. At night their searchlights light up the area around. The village seems to be watched all the time, day and night. We are told that if the ‘internationals’ leave the people will be chased out. It’s a bit spooky.

Iain was part of the World Council of Churches' Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Israel and Palestine which is organised in the UK by the Society of Friends at Friends House, 173, Euston Road, London NW1 2BJ, tel. 020 7663 1144, eappi@quaker.org.uk. The programme web site is www.quaker.org.uk/eappi. Churches in Jerusalem requested the Programme.

He would be pleased to talk to groups about his experiences in Israel and Palestine and can be contacted on 0131 556 8356 or 01700 841 294 or by e-mail at iainuconnon@yahoo.co.uk.