Yanun
I first visited Yanun just as the villagers were returning to their homes after being forced out weeks before by a group of Israeli settlers encamped in the surrounding hilltops. Since arriving these settlers had terrorized the village, eventually taking control of nearly all the Palestinian farmland – the wheat now sown only in the fields closest to the village, olives harvested from a fraction of the village trees, and shepherds working in fear of attack. In the weeks prior to the villagers leaving Yanun armed settlers had been entering the village firing off guns, fouling water reserves and finally burning the village’s generator, the only source of electricity.
In the first months back people were left shaken and afraid, but had returned intent on remaining in their homes. Their day-to-day lives had become tense and filled with worry but everyone who had chosen to return was in agreement that the only form of resistance available to them was to stay and remain living on their lands.
These photographs were all taken in the light of this determination, as well as in the fear and uncertainty of the time. They are the scattered moments of a simple, yet deeply held resistance against violence, expulsion and occupation.
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Photo: Yanun II//Photo: Yanun Portraits
