Words from Palestine

On Wednesday, July 28 2 IWPS volunteers responded to an invitation by EAPPI members in the village of Yanoun to visit an exhibit of children’s photography . Having little knowledge of the village and its history, we were taken aback by the apparent desolation of the village as well as its vulnerability. It is surrounded by Israeli Occupation Forces encampments and the extremist ideological settlement of Itamar. According to EAPPI members, settlers from Itamar come into the village 4 to 6 times a week, toting machine guns and menacing the residents.

While the villagers grow wheat, vegetables and olives (they press their own olive oil!), their main source of subsistence is animal husbandry. They have sheep, goats and chickens. They make cheese and have milk and eggs which they sell in Acraba, a village about 6 kilometers away. They also make bread, but follow the traditional Palestinian lore of bread. Bread is never to be sold, nor thrown away. It is sacred, given only as a gift
Sadly, the land they are able to access is shrinking on a monthly basis. The Itamar settlers , whom even the IOF appear to fear, threaten the villagers away from their grazing areas by patrolling village land with machine guns and other deadly weapons. The villagers have suffered much violence from the settlers, yet themselves have a strict policy of non-violence. When settlers appear with their weapons in hand, the villagers, whether they be grazing their animals or tending their farmland, simply move back toward the village center. The settlers patrol closer and closer to the village center, thus the villagers lose more of their land.
The village is separated into “upper” Yanoun and “lower” Yanoun by about 10 acres of farmland and Olive trees. There are less than 100 people who remain in the village. A few live in upper Yanoun, which is most vulnerable to settler intrusion, so most in live lower Yanoun. The village was completely depopulated in 1992 by settlers. A small number of villagers returned after an international presence was established there, first by IWPS and then by EAPPI.

Recently, there has been an organized effort on the part of settlers across the West Bank to intimidate and provoke Palestinians. This effort has included going in large groups of 100 or more to pray inside and at the entrance to Palestinian villages, as well as to burn Palestinian lands and Olive trees. Yanoun was not left behind in the effort. Settlers burned about 2 acres of land, including a few Olive trees. However, in a twist of irony, the wind changed direction and the fire started burning toward the illegal settlement houses, necessitating the settlers to put it out

I and my team mate spent most of the day in the village. It is situated on a hillside just west of the Jordan valley plain; The view is spectacular. From upper Yanoun you can see for miles across the ancient valley. I felt there was something sacred about the land I was sitting on and looking across. We discussed the ways we dealt (personally) with recognizing the humanity of the settlers and soldiers without excusing their behavior. It is a constant struggle to see those who commit the atrocities we witness as human beings worthy of compassion. But it is imperative we are able to do so, lest we become consumed with resentment and other negative emotions that make our work as peace activists less effective.

As I write, we have are making plans to visit Yanoun again. However, we will not be visiting Yanoun to demonstrate. We will be going back to Yanoun simply to be a non-violent presence in the midst of some of the ugliest forms of violence I have witnessed in the West Bank.

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