Municipalities and Councils - Australians for Palestine

Book of the Month
Living with Settlers
Interviews with Yanoun Villagers
By Thomas Mandal
Published by the World Council of
Churches, May 2011, 67 pages, NIS 30
The village of Yanoun sits at the head of
a valley in the Nablus hills. It is a beautiful
setting. In spring, the valley becomes a
riot of colour: delicate yellow, purple, and
red flowers carpet the olive groves as the
fields on the valley floor turn from rocky
stubble into a rich harvest of grass.
But Yanoun’s people live literally under
the shadow of the occupation. Caravans
and a military watchtower, outposts of the
illegal settlement of Itamar, perch on the
hilltops above.
In the late 1990s, an elderly shepherd
was grazing his sheep in the hills above
the village. A group of settlers came
walking towards him. He thought they
would ask him for a cigarette, but instead,
they beat him badly and left him half blind.
As the outposts spread across Yanoun’s
land, the harassment increased. Settlers
smashed up the village’s electricity
generator and rode through the village
on horseback, pointing their guns through
the windows of the houses at the children
inside.
In 2002, a Palestinian militant with no
68
connection to Yanoun attacked Itamar
resulting in several deaths. The reaction
was immediate: collective punishment.
Settlers told the residents of Yanoun to
leave or face the consequences. The
entire village took refuge in Aqraba. This
was the first forcible “cleansing” of an
entire Palestinian village since 1967.
The principle of protective presence is
that unarmed observers can deter abuses
by potential human rights violators.
This is the work of several groups in
the West Bank, including the Christian
Peacemaker Teams and TIPH in Hebron.
Israeli activists with the peace group
Ta’ayush found Yanoun’s mini-Nakba
unacceptable. Immediately they took
up residence in the village to provide
a protective presence against settler
attacks.
The effect of having Israelis, then
internationals, in Yanoun was almost
immediate. Settler violence dropped
dramatically, and the residents felt safe
enough to return to their houses.
Since 2003, the Ecumenical
Accompaniment Programme in Palestine
and Israel (EAPPI) has been responsible
for maintaining this constant presence.
Part of EAPPI’s mandate is to collect
testimonies about life under occupation,
and after two years of presence in
Yanoun, an ecumenical accompanier
wrote a book about the expulsion, based
on testimonies by the villagers
This new edition of Living with Settlers
shows that Yanoun’s story continues.
The direct violence has mostly ended,
but ongoing harassment and the loss
of around 80 percent of their land
has deeply affected this agricultural
community. Yanoun survives for now: a
testimony to the sumud (steadfastness)
of Palestinians.
Review by Paul Adrian Raymond
Living with Settlers is available at the
Educational Bookshop and the American
Colony Bookshop in Jerusalem.