|
|
||
|
 |
Yasuf Village Profile
Name of person doing the survey: Angie Date of Survey: 6th May 2004 Location of village: 5km northeast of Salfit City and 15km south of Nablus City. Current population, previous population. How many villagers are living outside Palestine? 1,500 currently and around 2,000 now living outside in Jordan, Kuwait and other countries.
Origins of the name. Any ancient sites or legends associated with the village? The name of Yasuf comes from Youshop which is the Roman name of the old Roman town on the site. There is also a tomb of a Roman King in Yasuf. The spring is an ancient one and is named Ein al Dilbid. There are old caves to the west of the village called Abu Izeem. There is also an 800 year old mosque called Abul Zarad and there are ruins of the Tomb Mosque in the village. Main forms of employment, currently and before intifada. Around 30% of the people of Yasouf used to work in Israel and the rest in agriculture. Now almost everyone is involved in agriculture, with a few working in small shops or for various Ministries of the Palestinian Authority.
Any traditional industries apart from farming? None. Agriculture. What crops do they grow? Any animals? How has this changed over the years? Wheat, olives, vegetables, goats, sheep, cows and chickens and two people have bee hives. Has changed in last few decades because more and more of their land is inaccessible due to settler violence. Form of government, e.g. village council, municipality. If elected, when were the last elections? If appointed, does each family have a representative? Each of the 9 families choose one representative and they then choose a Mayor. Names of the families living in the village in order of size. Aabiah, Abdel Fatah, Yasiin, Azzam, Mussleh, Hamoudah, Hussein, Abdel Razak and Ayoub. Political, religious and civic organizations e.g. mosques, women’s organizations. 2 mosques (one old and not used and one newer and used). Some money was donated recently and a much bigger mosque will soon be built which will have a small library attached.There is a children’s club (6-14) and also a youth club. Services: Any schools or clinics? How many shops? Nearest hospital, nearest university
A boys school began in 1945 in just two rooms then in 1956 the old mosque was used as a girl’s school. In 1962 another 4 rooms were built onto the boys school and then another room in 1966 and further rooms in other years following. In 1970 the girls school was built. Now the village has 3 schools – a mixed elementary school from 1st to 4th grades and then a boys secondary and girls secondary school. Further education is provided through the Open University in Salfit or the Universities in Nablus or Bir Zeit. There are no clinics in the village and patients have to go into Salfit or try to get into Nablus if there is anything really serious. Although there are two Doctors actually living in the village they do not work there. There are 9 shops in the village.
Utilities: Does the village have electricity, running water? When did they receive these? Other water sources. Any restrictions on their use? Electricity is provided for 6 hours per day through a diesel generator (from 6p.m. to 12 p.m.) They used to carry water on their heads from the spring before but got piped water to every house in the village in 1996. Now they have to pay 3.5 NIS pcm although there are no restrictions as yet. Each house has its own septic tank that is emptied from time to time. Transportation: what transportation services exist, transportation and road closure problems. There is a double roadblock at the entrance to Yasuf and there is a checkpoint at Zatara and another at Huwara, so no-one can get easily to Nablus nowadays. The fare used to cost 3.5 NIS and now is double that at 7.5NIS. No one used to go to Salfit often before the Intifada – they used to go to Nablus. Now everyone has to go to Salfit – all the offices are there now to get their permits and IDs.
Housing: Village plan, problems with building permits, and history of house demolitions. They do need Israeli permits for building but as long as they are building inside the village boundaries they can get these permits. But they cannot build outside the village boundaries which are defined by the Israelis. There have been no house demolitions nor any houses taken over and occupied by the military. Land total original area, previous confiscations with areas and dates and purpose, current confiscations and how they heard about confiscations? current built up area, agricultural area remaining (best to include maps if possible). A 1933 map of the village lands and a 1985 map showing areas of land and naming the owners of the land at that time were shown to IWPS. The original land of Yasouf comprised 5,565 dunams before any settlements were built. They have now lost over 50% of their land with the building of settlements and there is even more land that they are denied access to because of settler violence. In 1976 the Israeli military took some land ‘for military purposes’ (there is no legal appeal on such decisions) and in 1979 this land was passed onto settlers who increased the land they took to 500 dunams. In 1986 the village appealed to the Supreme Court and there was an agreement that the settlement would not be increased from the 500 dunams ‘not by one centimeter’. However, over the years, more than 2,500 dunams of Yasouf land has been taken away from Yasouf for the Tapuach settlement Then the satellite settlement of New Tapuach was built in 1999/2000 – also through the ‘military purposes’ process. And the newest settlement (only started last year in 2003 but now consisting of 10 houses) has confiscated 65 more dunams. Settlements: when built, population? Settler roads? Any problems with settlers?
There are 5 settlements surrounding Yasouf. To the West is Ariel, to the East Rehaliin, Tapuach and West Tapuach and to the South the new settlement that does not seem to have a name yet. The settlements and settlers are a major problem for Yasouf. The settlements have taken their land to build their settlements on. The Israeli water company now take their water and control the use of it. Violent settlers also use their land (outside of the settlement boundaries which are themselves illegal) and control it. For instance, various olive groves are too dangerous to go to without a very large crowd of Palestinians and international/Israeli accompaniment to keep the armed settlers at bay. The settlers graze their flocks of goat and sheep at gunpoint on the Yasouf land and prevent the village flocks from using this land. The settlers often enter the village with their guns and terrorise the villagers who are unarmed. Past human rights violations: killings, serious injuries, house demolitions, admin detention by army and/or settlers. No one in the village has been killed. No arrests are reported nor any house demolitions. However, there have been several instances of settler and army violence. Around 18 people were seriously injured on June 3rd 1999. This was when settlers wanted to open a road from Ariel to Tapuach over the hills. After initial complaints the road building was stopped but after Sharon came to power the road was built. There was a peaceful demonstration on the top of the hill on Yasouf land and the army and the settlers shot at the Palestinians and around 18 people were injured, including Hussein Azar who received a bullet in his mouth. One of the villagers said, ‘The Israeli army protects the settlers and even prevents peaceful demonstrations’. This settler road across the hills crosses, on the ridge, the agricultural road that the Yasouf villagers built to access the two thousand dunams of their rich olive tree land over the hill. The settlers and army built a roadblock on this agricultural land and they can not use it now. One Friday in 2002 a gang of armed settlers rampaged through the village and within 15 minutes had damaged over 18 cars, breaking their windows and smashing them with their rifles (one child was asleep in one of the cars). They also broke windows and water tanks on roofs - over 20 houses were damaged. During the olive harvest of 2002 there were numerous incidents of settler violence from settlers invading theYasouf lands to pick the Palestinians’ olive trees, to stones being thrown and shots being fired at Yasuf villagers who went to pick their olives. IWPS co-ordinated a month of support for the village and some successes were achieved. The various incidents during this month (October 2002) are recorded in IWPS House Reports 16 – Whose Rights, Whose Olives? and House Report 18 – Today……you won and also in the various Human Rights Reports that were written at the same time (IWPS Incident Reports 8,9,13 and 14). There have been other incidents since then that IWPS has not managed to cover in reports. In February 2004 settlers burnt a car that was parked next to a house near the spring. During several months from February to April 2004 every Saturday settlers came to the spring after their prayer time and tried to take it over, throwing stones and threatening the local people using it. The village boys responded by throwing stones back and there were several confrontations, which were more dangerous for the Palestinians as the settlers were often armed with guns and threatened to use them. After a number of continued complaints to the army as to how provocative this was, the village asked that if the settlers come they ask permission and be accompanied by the army. At the present time (May 2004) army jeeps are coming down on Saturdays and stopping this settler violence. However, the army is not controlling the instances of settler violence and threats to farmers who try to access their land for ploughing and harvesting and much of the land of Yasouf is now under the control of settlers in one way or another.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
