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more reports by John click here>>

6) July 14th -15th, 2003.
Jayyous and other villages come together to protest the Apartheid wall

Jayyous, the Qalqilya district, the Occupied Palestinian territories
John

On Monday, July 14th, the village of Jayyous, along with other villages in the Qalqilya district, engaged in a large peaceful protest. The goal of the demonstration was to bring attention to the continued suffering caused by the building of the aparthied wall. The aparthied wall has continued to be built without delay and it will run the entire length of the West Bank and annex over 20% of the existing Palestinian areas. In Jayyous the Wall will annex 75 % of the village's resources and cause certain death for the community.

The march left the municipality building around 11:00 am and travelled to a section of the wall still under construction. There they were met by about 20 soldiers, 3 APC's, and other artillary. About 300 area residents, 35 international and Israeli activists, participated in this event organized by local Palestinian residents and remained completely non-violent.

Just before the event began however, residents reported that individuals were being detained at the Gate along the Wall. The Gate is an opening which villagers have "permission" to use to access their lands on the other side of the wall. It is a site where the security guards for the construction company building the Wall harrass and intimidate the local residents. Renae, Michael D., and myself went down to the gate to investigate and found that two residents were told to sit under a tree until further notice. We found out that the reason why the security guards told them to do this is because a couple of private vehicles were travelling along the Wall's road and had asked for directions from the two men detained. The security guards told the two men that they would be detained until the drivers of the cars returned for questioning. What we later discovered was that the two vehicles who were travelling along the prohibited road were actually Israeli journalists who had gotten lost. Though the security guards were convinced that the journalists were friends of the detained Palestinians, they agreed to release the men.

In the evening of Monday, july 14th, we found out that the Gate in the nearby village of Falami had been blocked. The Gate at Falami is much like the Gate in Jayyous in that it is the only access farmers have to their lands. People in the village were concerned that the military was punishing farmers for the peaceful protest.

Tuesday, July 15th.

We were informed that the obstacle at the Falami gate was removed and farmers were now travelling to their lands. However, by late afternoon, we learned that the Gate had been shut and locked. We are still investigating these reports.

At 6:00 am, 7 internationals with ISM went to the Jayyous Gate for our daily monitoring. As reported in the past, the site of the Gate has been troubled lately because of the Israeli security guards detaining and beating local Palestinians. Today was particularly bad in that there was a much larger force of security guards than usual. Numbering around 8 heavily armed guards they proceeded to demand identification papers from the Palestinians. They also would search vehicles and the like. It must be remembered that these security guards are Israeli citizens and have no legal authority to engage in these activities. The ISM activists monitored the scene to make sure no physical abuses occured. The security guards were clearly annoyed by our presence and became hostile. They made a number of threatening remarks such as "If you stay here I am going to kill you", or "you do not want to make me mad because i will not control myself" , etc. As it was reminded to them that the Israeli high court gave these farmers permission to continue working on their fields on the other side of the aparthied wall, they would remark "that isn't Jayyous any more, it is Israel". In the end, however, all the farmers were able to pass to their lands without being detained or beaten.

Some of us also travelling with local farmers in their fields were confronted by APC's (armored personal carriers) who would aggressly drive toward the farmers tractors forcing them to stop. Like the Israeli civilian security guards, the Israeli military would demand papers. They would also question the farmers of their intentions and travel plans in the area. It must be reminded that the land that the farmers are travelling on is their own. It is land that has remained in their families for hundreds of years and is now being patrolled and controlled by the foreign Israeli state.

The villagers of Jayyous are correctly concerned that their lands on the Israeli side of the aparthied wall will soon be annexed. They believe this not only because other villages where the Wall has been completed have indeed lost their lands, but also because of this daily harrassment by the soldiers and security guards who already claim that their lands are now a part of greater Israel.