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	Home About us News from Palestine Contact Email Subscribe Donate Current Campaign Freedom Summer Ben John Adam Renee James Joe Michael Past Campaigns Events Photos Videos (ISM) Rachel Corrie Links Speakers Be a Delegate Press faq Actions!		more reports by John click here>> John's reports July 13th , 2003 Controlling the Gate on the road toward Peace: A view from the ground in Jayous, the Occupied Palestian Territories. A couple of weeks ago I embarked for Palestine. At that time, a number of friends told me that I was going at a historical moment. The prospects of peace and the implementation of Bush's roadmap appeared to be having some success. Much attention in the media around the "road map" provided some optimism. Though I wish I could inform people that such optimism is warranted, i must confess that the situation on the ground for Palestinians has continued to deteriorate in the last few months. Jayous, the small village from which I write today, sits about 6 km east of the Green line, in the Qalqilya district. As I mentioned in my last report, it is a village which will lose over 75% of its land to the construction of the "security wall/ apartheid wall". People in the village are very worried that they will not be able to sustain a life here and that they, much like the people who "fled" in 1948 and 1967, will become refugees. The "Gate" I mention in the title of this report is, I believe, a useful metaphor of the particular situation in Palestine in general and the village of Jayous in particular: it illuminates the very dynamics of power relations between Israel and the Palestinians. It is very difficult to describe the massive difference in power which exists between the two parties. Might one be able to make the comparison between the australian aborigines and the government of Australia? It is about one group of people who have the ultimate power to inflict terror in everyday life for every single person of the other group. It is also about the power to change the the physical geography of the landscape that the other's call home. It is about the power to dictate how a people shall live. It is simple about complete power. Jayous is a simple example. The small village sits neatly on a hillside overlooking its farmlands below. A few years ago, when one looked down at the valley, one would be see the many different kinds of agricultural projects, greenhouses, small dirt roads with tractors and donkey's and scattered families working in fields. It would have been peaceful and quiet and would have had very much the same feel as their ancestors had experienced. Today, however, things are radically different. The Wall which Israel is erecting to supposedly "separate the people and provide security for Israeli citizens" has changed all this. (I will not go into the economic reasons for the wall and the fact that it does not travel any where near the internationally recognized borders of Israel and Palestine at this time). I would first like to express how the Wall has dramatically altered the visual landscape here in Jayous. Instead of the peaceful valley below, the most striking thing one sees now is the massive scar across the landscape. The scar, or path of the fence/Wall, extends and meanders from one direction to the other, as far as the eye can see. The fence or wall, depending on the progress and location of it, is much more than a barrier. It includes a wide clearing of land approximately 25 feet across. It is surrounded by tunnels of barbed wire fences about 9 feet wide by 9 feet tall. Large yellow metal gates dot along its path. However, almost all the gates which separate one side of the village to the other are not opened. Indeed, there is only one gate open for travel. Thus farmers in the village must pass through the one gate to get to their fields, no matter how far that gate is from their land. The one "open" gate sits about 6 feet higher than the roads which the farmers are traveling and must navigate with considerable difficulty a means of traveling up to the fence and then back down to the road without getting stuck in the loose sand and large boulders. And as with other ways in which the Israeli's make life difficult for Palestinians, crossing through an "open" gate is not a straight forward experience. So beyond the suffering which forces the farmers to travel miles out of their way on very bad roads just to pass through the single fence, there is also the private security forces hired by the construction company building the fence which need to be navigated. Though they are not the police or military, they often prevent people from crossing. They will demand Palestinians "papers" (identification cards) to pass saying that while Palestinian land is on both sides of the fence, the fence and the road along it is the property of the state of Israel. Thus while the Israeli government has given temporary permission to the Palestinians for accessing their land (which now falls on the Israeli side of the wall), these private Israeli citizens see it as their duty to harass the farmers. Over the past week in Jayous, there have been a number of incidents whereby young male farmers were detained for hours at the gate and beaten up. Other incidents include Israeli civilians from nearby settlements harassing farmers as well as the military driving around their farms. The result is one of intimidation and fear amongst the villagers and many farmers are afraid of going to their fields. One might wonder why and how these Israeli civilians are able to have such control over Palestinians? It is really simple: all Israelis, including civilians, represent the brute strength of the Israeli state over Palestine. They are also very well armed, whereas Palestinians are unarmed. Even a lone Israeli settler may walk into the center of a Palestinian village without much concern. This is the kind of power Israeli's have over Palestinians which rarely is communicated to audiences in america. Jayous is also not unique in its commitment to non-violent resistance against these policies. For instance, many farmers have set up camps in their farms which sit on the Israeli side of the wall. Though the Israeli's have the military force to prevent Palestinians from building any permanent structures on their land, farmers have set up temporary structures --tents, the use of old school buses, make-shift shelters, etc.. Their hope is that by maintaining a presence on their land they will be able to continuing to own it. It is only a hope though and they are aware of this. For there have been many other similar situations which the Palestinians have lost control over their land. Other examples of nonviolent actions happening in this village is regular protest marches. Completely non-violent, people in the village march to the fence and gates and express their dismay to the security forces (and to the military which quickly shows up to quell the "uprising"). On Friday there was a march organized by a woman's group in town. They walked to one of the closed gates along the fence and though they merely carried signs and chanted slogans, were met by a large military presence in response. Of course the only media at the event was that of a South Korean newspaper. Tomorrow, Jayous will hold yet another protest march. Organized by the Land Defence committee and including farmers from villages close by, will also attract Israeli peace activists and international with the ISM. This particular march will seek to illuminate a point in which Condaleza Rice made a few days ago: that the wall is an impediment to the progress of a peaceful solution. However, as often happens with Palestinians show of commitment to nonviolent resistance, there is a strong possibility that such will be lost. For the media and the world usually find violence more sexy and sellable than nonviolence. Israeli's control the gate on the road to peace. They have literally caged Palestinians into small areas and have even prevented them from traveling within them. It is a terribly desperate situation and I often believe that there will not be a Palestinian home land or state in the near future. I think that they will continue to suffer as long as they remain in a land which the Occupying forces sees as their own. The daily suffering from terror is not something which I am convinced Americans could deal with for as long as the Palestinian s. I am continually amazed by the strength and beauty of the Palestinians. They are extremely wise and have a dignity unmatched in today's world. They exhibit a powerful relationship to the land, homes, villages, themselves. It is in this power which Palestinians will one day achieve justice.