ABSTRACT
I have just arrived in Yanoun, a village as remote as it is tiny, located between Nablus city and the Jordan valley. I was here once before, and I would have liked it to be different this time, but it’s not. Settler trailers still tower above the village in all directions, forming an almost unbroken chain that continues to choke the dwindling community of Palestinian farmers and shepherds. The nearest settlement, Itamar, is a full six kilometers away, but several of its illegal outposts are within a stone’s throw of tiny Yanoun. Settlers in the area are known for their support for Kach, a Jewish extremist group sharing its origins with Kahane Chai. Illegal and underground since 1994 when member Baruch Goldstein massacred 29 Palestinians in Hebron, Kach advocates creating “conditions of a negative magnet that will bring the Arab population to prefer to emigrate.” Translation: They’ll do just about anything to get the Palestinians out.
