Remembering Yanoun: 45th Palestinian village forcibly displaced in last two years

Team 38 in Yanoun - providing 'protection through presence' December 2010 - March 2011.

Fifteen years ago this month, in December 2010, with two UK colleagues, I joined an international group of Human Rights Observers in Jerusalem as part of the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel. We were each to go to one of seven placements in the West Bank to live alongside Palestinian communities under threat from Israeli settlers and the occupation forces and to work with Palestinian and Israeli Peacemakers.

Four of us from the international team went to serve in the north of the West Bank, in Yanoun, a tiny village near Nablus and from there we monitored the surrounding area and the Jordan Valley. Every day we visited different communities.

We witnessed and recorded the results of the violence of the Israel military and illegal Israeli settlers against people, animals, water sources, fields, trees and land. It was endless and we never left the village unattended.

From our house in Yanoun we could see the illegal Israeli settlements on the three hills that overlooked us, we saw the comings and goings of coachloads of visitors being shown round, the planting of vine groves, the introduction of sheep, the building of houses to replace the caravans, and we watched the groups of walkers coming through the village to establish ' boots on the ground'. We also encountered armed settlers and their children coming up into the village and challenging us. All under the watchful eyes of the armed Settlement Security Guards and the Israeli military.

From the very beginning, when the previous team handed over to us, we learnt the village boundaries. Any visitors we had were also given precise instructions as to where we and they could walk. No towering wall here, as in other parts of the West Bank, and no fence at that time but boulders along the paths and behind the houses that marked the lines that had been designated by the Israeli military and settlers in 2002, as the remaining outline of the village. The villagers had been told that crossing those landmarks was liable to result in being shot.

The settlers stole more and more village land and over the years, the harassment and violence towards the Palestinian families increased and in 2002 the families were forcibly displaced, being told, at gunpoint, that anyone left after Saturday would be killed. The families left for the nearby town and the news of this forced displacement resulted in international, grass roots, condemnation with volunteers going to offer solidarity. The volunteers offered to live in the village with any families who wanted to return and provide protection through presence. Some families returned and the international presence remained for a number of years.

The theft of land continued and in recent years has increased drastically and on Boxing Day 2025 we learnt that the grazing land, the harvest and the fertile land in the valley had all been stolen. Animals died due to lack of grazing, and the settlers blocked the only remaining road that gave access to the village and prevented anyone from outside from entering. Villagers, particularly the young people, were harassed continually and anyone from outside, who might have gone to help, feared for their lives if they tried to enter.

The families were told recently that they all had to leave and they started to take their animals and belongings out, without anyone being able to come in and help them. On the morning of Sunday 28th December Israeli settlers and military arrived to give them the final ultimatum. They had to have to have left completely by 4pm that day.

Just after 4pm, 2pm GMT, we got the message, 'Yanoun is empty'.

This was accompanied by a video of the last car journey out of the village along the road that many of us know so well. The road with ancient olive trees alongside, that passes the few remaining fields, the fig and prickly pear bushes and gave us our first sight of the village as we approached in anticipation on our many follow up visits. The road that gave us the view up to the village that we continually looked back on as we left with great sadness each time.

Yanoun is the 45th Palestinian community to be forcibly displaced in the West Bank since October 2023. All settlements are illegal under international law but their expansion and the Israeli treatment of Palestinian families continues with impunity as governments turn a blind eye, refuse to condemn and worse, provide the weapons used by the Israeli military and settlers against the Palestinian population that Israel, as an occupying power has a responsibility to protect and care for. The most we see are toothless statements that are of absolutely no use to the Palestinians, while governments refuse to call Israel to account for the daily violations of international law and the endless incidents of vicious and inhumane violence that is reported daily by eye witnesses, but sadly not in the mainstream media.

There must be an end to this. An end to the occupation and colonisation of both the West Bank and Gaza. Palestinians must have a Right of Return to their land and their homes and the Right of Self Determination in their future. There must be Justice.

Please, pray for justice, raise awareness, tell the stories, watch the films, write to your elected representatives and keep writing to them even if they don't care, show solidarity to those suffering the endless injustices of nearly eighty years and support any of the groups that are undertaking advocacy or providing practical help.

Please keep on keeping on so that together with all those Palestinians and Israelis working for justice we can see some hope of peace and justice being a reality.

Ann Farr

Core Member of Pax Christi International Working Group of Justice for Palestine and Israel. Former Chair of Pax Christi England and Wales and Board Member of Pax Christi International.

LINKS

Holy Land: Illegal settlers in new land grab: www.indcatholicnews.com/news/40294

Btselem Settler Updates: www.btselem.org/settler_violence_updates_list

Israel is advancing ethnic cleansing in the West Bank: www.instagram.com/p/DS0Ca-EiGPH/

Yanoun: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yanun