Al Ayun: Suffering from house demolitions and settler harrassment
The village of Al Ayun lies directly below the settlement Qarne Shomeron.
On Saturday June 21st, we joined a group of Palestinians, including the Head of the Steering Committee of the PA Legislative Council, Israeli peace activists and internationals from different organisations on an informative tour of Al Ayun in the Wadi Qana area. Al Ayun is located southeast of Azzoun, in an area where there are several springs and therefore Israel is highly interested in that area. In addition, the village is surrounded by seven settlements and the settlers are causing much trouble with the villagers, damaging their houses and agricultural belongings.
A convoy of about 15 cars set out for the Wadi Qana, the official route to Al Ayun. After a short distance on the main road the cars turned to the left and entered the Wadi Qana track, not really recommended for normal cars! After about two km two hummvees stopped the convoy. It seemed that the group would be prevented from reaching the village. After less than half an hour, the group arrived by foot at the first spring where a children's programme was going on. One of the farmers, who was busy cleaning the open water basin from which the fruit trees could be irrigated, explained that the settlers come many times when the farmers leave their land and destroy the irrigation system and fruit trees.
In the meantime, it seems that the soldiers had been given the order to let us continue by car, so we did. On the way we could see how much water is available at some of the springs where we could fill our water bottles, which is very important in the heat.
Close to Al Ayun, we saw a lot of sewage running into the road and fields. A man told us that sewage has been coming from Yaqir and Qarne Shomeron settlements since 1986, and it was not until 2004 that it stopped, thanks to many years of protests from the villagers. Now they are fighting Revava settlement over the sewage problems and land confiscation.
The inhabitants of Al Ayun are 1948 refugees from the Jaffa area. The village of Al Ayun formerly had 40 houses of which only seven remain, the other 33 having been demolished by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). The last house was demolished in February 2008. A man told us that first the army destroyed a stall, then, realising that they had made a mistake, destroyed the same person's house as well.
We went up a hill to the remaining houses and found them very simple, built from stones from the fields and fixed by clay. For the roofs it has not been allowed to use normal roof plates or tiles. The height of the houses is about 1.70 m. There is no water, no electricity and for some of them demolishing orders have been issued. Despite the very simple living conditions, most of the young women we met attend secondary school and some of them the University of Qalqilya. Al Ayun no longer exists in the Israel plan of villages and since the year 2000, children born there no longer get birth certificates with the name of Al Ayun but instead Azzoun or Qalqilya. This means that these children won't be able to live on their own land as adults.
Until 1967 there were hundreds of families living in Al Ayun, but since then most people have moved away because of the pressure the village is put under. The expansion plans for the settlements make life very precarious for the people in Al Ayun, but as one of the young women put it, this is their home and they are determined to stay.
