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more reports by John click here>>

3) July 1, 2003 Yanoun: Non-violent resistance to terror

Yanoun, the Occupied West Bank.

On June 29th, fellow Bostonian Ben Scribner, an elderly Canadian peace activist named Louie, and myself slept in Yanoun, a small, isolated village of about a hundred residents south east of Nablus. At 11:00 pm the village's electrical generator (which is turned on for about 3 and a half hours a day), was shut down and the result was near total darkness. Both streetlights and houses went dark and the village was engulfed in silence.

The evenings in Yanoun had been quiet and peaceful for many hundreds of years. But today, it is now disturbed by the encroachment of forces just beyond the village. Indeed, a massive string of bright lights emanate from the nearby Israeli settlements that surround the village on 3 sides (click here to see map of Yanoun and surrounding settlements). Not only do these lights remain on for 24 hours a day (while the Palestinians can only afford to have electricity 3.5 hours a day), the settlement also uses powerful search lights which illuminate massive areas in the village and the surrounding areas. Instead of the peacefulness of the dark, search lights scan over the village landscape keeping a watchful eye on the Palestinians of Yanoun.. (People which by the way have not once attacked or even approached the settlements). The result of the search lights, as well as the guard towers occupied by armed private Israeli security forces is intimidating, as they have the power to watch the Palestinians, but the Palestinians do not have the power to watch the Israeli's.

Like many other villages scattered throughout the West Bank, the families who live in the village of Yanoun have lived here for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. It has not been until recent history, however, that these ancient villages have become increasingly at risk of disappearing forever. 

A combination of complimentary forces are quietly working to convince the residents that they would be better off elsewhere. Forces which include the large and violent settler (colonist) population nearby, economic difficulties imposed on them from the occupation, which includes the difficulty to near impossiblity of travel due to road closures, check points and curfews, and the Israeli state apparatus which increasingly encroaches every more, into their lives and their land.

Our Boston delegation has agreed to commit itself to maintain a regular presence in this village for at least 3 weeks. It is believed that the very act of just being present in Yanoun has allowed the villagers to continue living there and thus preventing its disappearance.

Both international and Israeli human right activists have maintained such a presence here since Yanoun was violently attacked in October of 2002. In one particular incident that month, a large group of settlers had surrounded a house and threatened to return that evening and kill everyone in the village. Attacks on villagers had been occurring with greater frequency over the previous months and with the settlers setting fire and burning down the village electric generator, the villagers considered the threat credible. Upper Yanoun proceeded to completely evacuate. The settlers, upon their victory, quickly seized land in the village and began to plow it for their own purposes. This land remains in the hands of the settlers to this day.

Attacks by the settlers on this village which were common before the expulsion in October of 2002 and they include, but are not limited to:

*The oldest man in the village being beaten with sticks and pelted with large stones and left for dead in an olive field. The result was the loss of one eye.

*In May, 2002, Samiah (20 years old) and Ramia (14 years old) were working on their fields when they were approached by 25 settlers who beat them with their rifles. One of them has received permanent injuries from the attack and which now prevents him from being able to perform normal labor.

*The mayor Abu Latief had his house broken into and was beaten resulting in deep scars on his face.

*On may 17th, 2002, a man named Ghassan was shot in the leg while he was working in his fields.

*settlers invading the village and proceeding to slaughter110 sheep last year.

*In July 2002, Rashid, a young man was shot at with M16,s. Though they spared him, the settlers did proceed to shoot and inflict much damage to his tractor.

*The road to Nablus was closed by the settlers. The settlers, after seizing a piece of fertile agricultural land, stationed a militia on the road and prevented Palestinians from using it. The Israeli military, observing (and indeed remaining passive) the so-called "conflict" between the groups, made the road closing "official" by a military order claiming that it was for "security reasons" that the Palestinians would not be allowed to use it. The result is that, not only was the land taken from the villagers without compensation or arrests, travel to Nablus now is a 40 kilometer journey instead of what was less than 15. 

As one can imagine these incidents not only play a part in terrorizing the population, but also produce grave economic consequences. The people of Yanoun are very poor. They own three cars that are in very bad condition, have electricity only a few hours a day, and survive largely on their agricultural products. Having to repair a tractor filled with bullet holes and replacing of 110 sheep has immense economic repracautions.

In October, 2002 an Israeli peace group named Ta-ayush became involved in Yanoun and coordinated activities to prevent the forceable "transfer (the ethnic cleansing) of the Palestinian residents. Their presence helped to make the villagers feel safe and they began to return to their homes. Ta-ayush and other international human rights organizations such as ISM and the International Women's Peace Service, have maintained a presence in the village for the past 10 months and it appears to be some what successful as a deterrent against violent attacks.

At first the presence of International human right activists did not prevent all attacks. The settlers considered internationals, including the Israeli activists, as enemies who were invading "the land that God gave to them". So in November 2002, 4 internationals (including 2 american seniors) were physically assaulted and beaten by the settlers - putting two in the hospital with severe injuries. Also, early in 2003, a couple of other internationals attempting to document settler seizures of land were also beaten. As with Palestinians being attacked, the Israeli military did not intervene into these incidents. No arrests were made nor was there an investigation. While the Israeli military does publicly acknowledge that they have the responsibility to provide protection for all the residents and visitors of the so-called "administered territory", their first priority is the safety of Israeli citizens who reside in the illegal (by international law) settlerments. The preferential treatment of Jewish settlers in Palestine is taken without question. Thus, in the case of the slaughter of livestock or damage to tractors or medical expenses, no compensation or justice has ever been provided.

It was not until an Israeli citizen and human rights activist was seriously injured by settlers, that the Israeli military moved into action. David, from the Israeli peace group Ta-ayush was badly beaten and will suffer from unrepairable neural damage. Though the military arrested just one of the settlers (and not everyone involved in the attacks), the fact that an Israeli citizen was injured by another Israeli citizen led the Israeli legal system to start spinning its gears. The military arrested a settler by the name of Avri Ran, the so-called leader of the Itamar outpost. His trial had been set for September, 2003. It is likely that the combination of his arrest and trial and the presence of internationals that violent attacks have declined in recent months.

It must be mentioned however, that the settlers do maintain their own kind of presence in Yanoun. Every couple of days, a settler (usually one named victor) rides his off-road vehicle into the center of the village. He is usually alone and carries an automatic rifle. Sometimes he sits in the center of the village for 10 minutes smoking cigarettes. When internationals go out to observe him, he leaves. It is believed that he is seeing if the internationals are still present. But the very fact that a lone Israeli settler can ride into the center of a Palestinian village without any fear is remarkable. Indeed, if a Palestinians villager even looks out of his door at him, he would go over to the house and smash windows. The power of the settler consists of even more than the knowledge of being the only armed person in the village. It consists of knowing that Palestinians do not have any recourse of legal action or military might to prevent the settlers from coming and terrorizing the village. The difference in power is unbelievable as it is simply unimaginable that a Palestinian would be able to even approach a settlement without being shot by a settler or arrested by the military.

Other things the settlers do to maintain their presence worth mentioning is to come into the village and wash their dogs in the village's water supply and also occasionally shooting toward the people turning on or off the electrical generator in the evening.

But because these daily and seemingly "normal" incidents of intimidation are the norm and violent expulsions have decreased, some peace groups have committed to a less visible presence. Thus the International Women's Peace Service, a group that our Boston group works closely with, has now taken the responsibility of coordinating an international presence here.                                                                                                           

How are we to make sense of all of the violent intimidation on the part of the settlers? Why do they terrorize the Palestinians who merely wish to live peacefully in their small village? What are the reasons that the Israeli settlers give in attacking peaceful people? And why does the Israeli government rarely intervene into such attacks against Palestinians?

Answers to these questions become very clear when one speaks with the settlers or military. Many of the Israeli citizens who choose to live in settlements believe that God has given the land to the Jews. For the settlers, who have significant political strength in Israel, Palestinians are trespassing on their land. The settlers do not believe that the Palestinians have any right to stay there without their permission. The fact that a Palestinian family may have lived on the same piece of land for over 1000 years means nothing to them. Little better is the manner in which the Israeli government views the Palestinians at best: temporary "custodians" of the land. Indeed, most Israeli's believe that the Occupied Palestinian Territories are not even "occupied", but rather "administered". And thus the Israeli government daily annexes Palestinian land into Israeli hands.

As opposed to other colonial regimes, Israel has no intention of incorporating the Palestinian people into the state of Israel. They want the land, not the people. They do not want people who have a right to political representation who are not determined to keep Israel "a state for the Jewish people". Thus, the settlers, including the settlements that the Israeli government doesn't officially sanction (those living is so called "illegal outposts" as opposed to all the settlements which are illegal by way of the 4th Geneva Convention), tend to work conveniently well with the over arching goals of the Israeli state: the annexing of land and the "quiet" removal of the people who reside there. As with the case of Yanoun, the Israeli state did nothing to prevent the continuing attacks on the unarmed villagers. They also did nothing when the residents of the village fled out of fear of being slaughtered. The Israeli government simply did nothing as a violent militia chased every Palestinian away from the village. 

Returning home as non-violent resistance

The courage of the villagers of Yanoun to return to their homes is extraordinary. Even more extraordinary is the fact that they have done so without the use of violence in retaliation for their suffering and losses. Indeed, such an action of simply returning to their homes should be considered an act of non-violent resistance. Non-violent resistance is often thought as protest marches, sit-ins, and other public displays. However, it is necessary to broaden our understanding of non-violence to the context of a particular situation. Returning to one,s home, under a constant threat of attack, injury, and death and the refusal to be expelled is an act of non-violent defiance. Further, as the world's governments remain passive to this, international human rights activists and people of conscience have took it upon themselves to protect the rights of people they have never met.

Terror as a way of life:

Unfortunately, such terrorizing practices are not unique to the villagers of Yanoun. Such occurs in every village and city throughout Palestine. Whether it is by the settlers or by the military, everyone has a story to tell of beatings, detentions, humiliation, arrests, and other injustices - indeed one needs only to speak with people to feel the terrible suffering and sadness, not to mention the physical scars on their faces. Terror, in the form of roaming bands of settler militias or the sanctioned Terrorism inflicted by the State of Israel, is immense and total. Palestinians have difficulty understanding why Americans (who they know have a lot of influence over Israel) has been silent to these facts, in contradiction to most of the world are aware of them. It is also very upsetting to them that the mass media represents them as the terrorists and the Israeli's as the guiltless victims.

Ethnic conflict?

As many Palestinians communicate, it is not the Jews or even the Israeli state that they are against, but rather the acts of aggression and terror. For Palestinians, it does not matter who is committing such acts against them, acts of violence and expulsion must be resisted.

Such statements, which I hear regularly, contradict what most commentators of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict say. The dominant view in the media is one of a "primordial" ethnic conflict. A view that suggests that conflicts between ethnic and religious groups are natural. The primordial ethnic conflict thesis is an easy way for commentators to speak about any and all violent confrontations between different ethnic or religious groups. I believe that this line of argument is incorrect in most conflicts in particular this one. For it suggests that ethnic identities are static and unchanging and that these unchanging identities motivate people to violently oppress other groups; that ethnic diversity automatically leads to violence; and that it takes a strong state to monopolize the means of violence for ethnic conflict to be put! under control.

Ethnic conflict requires extreme differentiation and stigmatization of other groups to blossom. Such occurs usually with the assistance of forces beyond the local, community level, at the state level. As in recent cases such as the former Yugoslavia, Rhawanda , and Cambodia, most cases of ethnic cleansing occur when people have been "primed" by national leaders and other powerful influences in society (such as the media). I assume that if Israel did not consider itself as a nation for the Jewish people, that if it hadn,t relied on biblical text to legitimize the colonization of Palestine, and if it had rather believed in the modern, liberal notion of democracy and citizenship, that the history of the region would be different.

Ethnic identities are not something unnatural or dangerous. While most people identify with group identities and make distinctions between "us" and "them", the process of making "them" into more extreme categories such as "outsiders" or "dangerous others" is something different. Something happens between seeing another group as "others to seeing them as "pollution which needs to be cleansed for the "purity of the "imagined community. In this conflict, could it not be that the state of Israel has enforced a definition of who can be and who cannot be a citizen? Israel's essentialist notions equate one particular people to the place. Cannot the multitude of practices that Israel practices be seen as a form of ethnic cleansing? From the "legitimate state practices such as house demolitions of people who are guilty of no crime; the prevention of work, school, and normal life due to road closures, curfews and checkpoints; the seizure of land essential for the economic well-being of families and villages; to the disallowing of Palestinians the right to return to Palestine if they had left before the age of 35 to work in another country, etc., to the "illegimate" practices of allowing armed bands of their citizens to terrorize the indigenous population and seize their lands without fear of punishment. May these things be seen as ethnic cleansing of its "out of place" victims?

Struggle and hope

Every day life for Palestinians is one of struggle. The many conversations I have engaged in with Palestinians relate a life as a struggle between hope and despair. They struggle to remain hopeful that the ideas of justice, fairness, and peace will prevail and their hopes of self-determination and respect will one day come about. These hopes are muted however in the blinding reality of daily humiliation, violence, and subordination to colonizers and invaders who consider them "less than human". To be a Palestinian in Palestine is to experience life as a stranger in one's own land. The pride, wisdom, and determination the Palestinians exhibit seems to be the glue that maintains the identity and culture as a people together. 

The story of Yanoun is a story about all of us. It is the story of the desire to live in peace and with those one cares about. It is about accepting the diversity of others outside your community. It is about having a relationship to the land which one's ancestors were nourished. It is about being able to live with dignity in one,s own home. It is about not being abused and exploited from outsiders who seek to destroy your family, community, culture and way of life. It is about the belief that justice and fairness shall prevail in this world. It is about working through problems with a commitment to nonviolence. It is about the right to say "you can take no more". And most of all, it is about hope.