Yanoun and the Irish rain umbrella

Gerry O'Sullivan

Yanoun is a very special place-and a tragic one. It lies in the north of the Palestinian West Bank and has now been emptied of Palestinians.

I had heard its name spoken in low, reverent tones long before I ever reached the West Bank. But I did not walk its land until a two-week stint in 2019 when I was based there with EAPPI Stella Carroll and the late David Heap . Our role was to maintain a protective presence 24 x 7.

By then, the warning signs had already been in existence for many years.

Today, Yanoun is empty. Empty of Palestinians.

It is now the 45th village in the West Bank from which Palestinians have been forcibly evicted since October 23. And over 1,000 Palestinians have been murdered by Israeli settlers or Israeli state forces.

Yanoun village once sat with quiet dignity: three sides embraced by majestic hills, the fourth opening into a single narrow gap-the only road in or out. A place that should have felt protected instead became a trap.

Above the village on the hills loomed illegal Israeli settlements. From there came repeated, often vicious attacks on Yanoun and its peaceful Palestinian residents. Life itself became dangerous.

What stays with me most is the memory of one man from the village of Yanoun (name withheld)

He was tall-very tall-broad, olive skinned and striking. Yet his face was gentle, his smile warm.

He was the one who led us into the hills so we could accompany Bedouin Palestinian shepherds as they took their goats to forage and find water on land that was rightfully theirs, but had become perilous because of settler violence and attacks.

I first met him on a blistering hot day. I had packed what I thought was a practical thing: an Irish umbrella, floral, rose-printed, small and unmistakably feminine. I brought it so I could shield myself from the sun while we rested, all the time being watched by hostile settlers.

When we stopped I offered our Palestinian friend the umbrella for shelter.

I still smile at the memory: this tall, imposing, deeply kind Palestinian man standing beneath a delicate Irish rain umbrella, its pink roses catching the light as he walked. Protection, however small, mattered, even if it was only from the sun.

At the end of the journey as we went back to the village of Yanoun, I asked if he wanted to keep it. He nodded, smiling.

Who would have thought an Irish rain umbrella could become a shield for a Palestinian?

A simple but beautiful memory, BUT his home and the village of Yanoun is gone.

The last Palestinian families were ordered to leave by 4pm on 28th December 2025, a day that will probably be etched in their brain for ever. They were not allowed to bring a truck to remove their belongings. They left behind their old stone homes-beautiful, solid, rooted-and generations upon generations of memories.

Lives were not just displaced. Yanoun and its memories were erased by illegal Israeli settlers and Israeli security forces. The 4th Geneva Convention states that an occupier should not move its own people into the land that the country is occupying. At this stage there are approx.. 800,000 Israeli settlers in Palestinian occupied land.

And what does the world do?

It wrings its hands.

It murmurs vague, empty platitudes.

It looks away.

The ethnic cleansing of Palestinians continues quietly in the West Bank, carried out under the protection and security of Netanyahu's government-methodical, relentless, and largely ignored.

The Irish Seanad and Dail voted to pass the Occupied Territories Bill to ban the purchase of services and goods from the illegal settlements in 2018 and it is now 2026 and it is still not enacted.

Yanoun is empty of Palestinians now. But it should not be forgotten. Please continue to lobby on the Occupied Territories Bill.

Gerry O'Sullivan is an Irish mediator and conflict resolution specialist with over 35 years' experience. She volunteered regularly in the West Bank between 2011 and 2022, working mainly in Hebron with Christian Peacemaker Teams and the World Council of Churches' EAPPI programme. Her work included protective presence, facilitation and training. In March 2022, she trained lawyers in Jerusalem in mediation skills.

Gerry directed and produced the documentary Stolen Children, Stolen Lives (2011): www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBR_kLdR9sI

She is the author of The Mediator's Toolkit: Formulating and Asking Questions for Successful Outcomes: www.osullivansolutions.ie/.

Gerry's delivers training based on this book to participants from Russia, Europe, USA, Canada, South America, the Middle East, Africa and Australia.