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.......read more reports from our delegates participating in the Olive Harvest Campaign 2004

Dec 09 2004 The Slow Creep of Israel's annexation of Palestine

John P, Jayyous, the Occupied Territories

First they were told that they were building a wall between the two
populations for the protection of both.

.. Then they were told them that the wall on their land was necessary for the
protection of Israel.

Then they told the Palestinian farmers on whose land the wall rests that they
would have unlimited access to their landsafter which gates were erected
along the wall ­ gates which would be opened only three times a day.

. Then the Palestinian farmers were told that if they wanted to work their
land ­ now on the Israeli side of the wall ­ they would have to get special
Israeli work permits in order to pass through the gates which only opened
three times per day.

This is the story of Jayyous. Jayyous is a small village of approximately
3,500 people located six kilometers from the "green line" (the
internationally recognized border between Israel and the Palestinian
territories). The so called Israeli "security" wall, as in most places on the
West Bank, was not erected on the green line border but, rather, deep in
Palestinian territory. Consequently, it consumes some 85% of Jayyous
agricultural land. Only about fifteen percent of Jayyous's land is now
located on their "Palestinian" side of the wall. To complete the narrative
sketched out above, after the Israeli soldiers informed the Palestinians that
they would require work permits in order to pass through the gate in order to
work their own lands ­ though now on "Israeli" territory - they told them as
well that the only ones likely to receive permits were those either over
fifty or under fifteen years of age. Finally, they told the farmers ­ whose
crops have been devastated by these decisions - that they would no longer be
able to sell what is left of their produce in Israeli markets.

These events have had disastrous social and economic consequences for the
farmers and community of Jayyous. This land has been taken illegally, and in
direct opposition to the Military Court of Israel's decision just last year
that land would not be taken from farmers. In a matter of less than a year
following that decision, various measures have been taken and barriers
erected to make it extremely difficult ­ if not impossible ­ for these
farmers to get to their lands. In the end, it seems as though the observation
made to me by a soldier one year ago has turned out to be true: "the
[security] wall will be the new green line."

I first came to Jayyous two years ago, when the path for the security wall was
then being cleared. At the time, I, the Palestinians, and other observers had
to watch as huge caterpillar bulldozers tore away hundreds of olive trees.
Villagers stood in the path of the bulldozers and armored military vehicles
in an attempt to resist this injustice by peaceful means. Jayyous, like most
other Palestinian communities, has maintained a commitment to non-violent
resistance. This commitment is admirable considering the levels of violence
and incidence of theft which they have endured for many years. On the one
hand, it is amazing and inspiring to see such spirited and sustained
non-violent marches, actions, and protests after all these years. On the
other, it is an unbearable tragedy to know that their non-violence has not
been successful, nor even recognized and valorized. Many people in the US and
elsewhere still view the Palestinians as the primary sources of violence in
the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

A few days ago, when I came to Jayyous it was for a social visit. Seeing
friends in the Palestinian territories is often one in which sadness and
despair can easily overwhelm hope and desire. In the midst of asking such
simple questions as, "How are things?" I have been informed that, as bad as
things have already been, they continue to deteriorate from one month to the
next. Ample examples were provided: A new Israeli settlement is being built
on Palestinian farmlands immediately to the latter's side of the wall on
lands which are currently being cultivated. Jayyous residents only discovered
this when they stumbled across signs and maps on their land stating - in
Hebrew - that over 850 Dunams (225 acres) "to start" would be taken for the
construction of Jewish only housing. The settlement is to be placed in front
of the two gates which the Jayyous residents currently use to access their
farmlands on the Israeli side of the wall. They will effectively be barred
from ever passing through the gates again. No new gates have been planned at
this time.

Furthermore, because the new settlement is to be built right next to the fence
and within meters of existing Palestinian homes, the villagers believe that
it is likely that their homes will be destroyed. The justification for this
destruction will be that the Palestinian homes pose a security risk to the
settlers. Accompanying the new settlement will be a large military base as
well, just meters from the village. While listening to this news, I sat in
shock and groped for words for my old friends. I could never imagine
something like this happening to my own community, and so it was difficult
for me to put myself completely in their shoes. What can one say about the
fact that their entire livelihood and means of sustenance had been completely
torn from them by another people with claims to the need for "security"?

The situation in Jayyous is similar to that of many communities located
immediately next to the "security wall". Israel continues to argue that the
purpose of the wall is to "separate" the two populations for the protection
of Israeli citizens. How can such a wall be defended when the facts
surrounding its construction have little to do with protection? How can a
wall be merely for protection when its practical purpose is to annex the best
Palestinian land and give it to Jewish settlers? Who themselves are illegally
colonizing Palestinian territory? These practices clearly violate the Geneva
Convention. For instance, regarding land leveling and property destruction
carried out for the construction of the wall, Article 53 of the Fourth Geneva
Convention states that "any destruction by the Occupying power of real or
personal property belonging individually or collectively to private persons,
or to the State, or other public authorities or social or cooperative
organizations is prohibited, except where such destruction is rendered
absolutely necessary bymilitary operations."

Israel's settlement practices are in clear violation of other international
law as well. In 1980, the UN passed Security Resolution 465, which determined
that, "[A]ll measures taken by Israel to change the physical character,
demographic composition, institutional structure or status of the Palestinian
and other Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem, or any
part thereof, have no legal validity and that Israel's policy and practices
of settling parts of its population and new immigrants in those territories
constitute a flagrant violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to
the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and also constitute a
serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in
the Middle East. Also, according to a ruling by the International Court of
Justice earlier this year, the wall violates international law and causes
untold suffering to Palestinians and their communities. As such, the ruling
demanded that the wall be torn down.

The sinister history of settlements

To understand the reasons why Israel continues to annex land from the
Palestinians and to expand and build new settlements, one needs to understand
the sinister history of the project.

Zionists began building settlements in the first half of the 20th century. It
was their belief that settlements would eventually provide the practical,
ground level basis for sovereignty claims. In 1948, when Israel proclaimed
independence, they did so based on the patterns of settlements already
established ­ even though they were a small minority of the population in
many areas. After the 1967 war, Labor-led governments sought to create
settlements on the territory captured (West bank, Sinai, Gaza, and the Golan
Heights). In contrast to earlier politicians, Moshe Dayan, an important
Israeli leader, reasoned that settlements ­ by themselves - were not going to
bring about more security for Israel; it is "not because they can ensure
security better than the army, but because without them we cannot keep the
army in those territories. Without them the IDF would be a foreign army
ruling a foreign population." Later, in1977, Begin's Likud government speeded
up the settlement project. At that time there were only about 50,000 Israelis
living in annexed East Jerusalem, and 7,000 settlers in tiny West Bank
settlements. Ariel Sharon also entered the picture in 1977 as Minister of
Agriculture in the Begin government. He unveiled a plan called "A Vision of
Israel at Century's End" which aimed to quickly and densely populate the
Palestinian West Bank. The plan deliberately proposed to place Jews in areas
of high Palestinian concentration, as well as build a north-south axis of
settlements. This north-south chain would run from the Golan Heights to the
Negev, encircling Jerusalem with a ring of settlements to effectively cut it
off from the rest of the West Bank, and to concentrate settlers in what they
called "Samaria", in the center of the west bank. This planned settlement
scheme ­ politics as an extension of war? - was to bring about a "demographic
transformation" in the Occupied Territories. Thirty years later, more than
400,000 settlers have now been settled in the territories - along with dozens
of military bases, settler-only roadways, and other infrastructure.

Israeli architects Segal and Weizman made the following observation:

"What becomes evident is that by placing settlers across the landscape, the
Israeli government is not merely utilizing the agencies of state power and
control, namely the police and army, for the administration of power, but
that it 'drafts' the civilian population to inspect, control and subdue the
Palestinian population. An inconsistency develops between what the settlers
want to see, the way they describe and understand the panorama, and the way
that their eyes are hijacked' for the strategic and geopolitical aim of the
state. The desire for a single family home is being mobilized to serve the
quest for military domination, while an act of domesticity, shrouded in the
cosmetic façade of red tiles and green lawns, provides visual territorial
control".

What can settlement building be except the conquest of land and the
subordination of another people to Israeli political will? These acts cast
doubt on the rhetoric of Israeli officials claiming that Israel wants peace;
Israel does not want peace, it wants more land! The settlement project first
gave them a country, now they are using settlement as a means to expand their
borders. After all, Israel is a country that has never formally established
fixed borders. How can it establish borders if it continues to build
settlements and lay claim to foreign territory? Sometimes, leaders are
candid about their intentions, such as when Air Force Commander Eitan Ben
Eliahu said: "Eventually we will have to thin out the number of Palestinians
living in the territories."

Perhaps the entire problem can be debated as one of how a state defines
itself. Israel was founded as the state for the Jewish people. As in other
places, such as Serbia, when one group defines and prioritizes the rights of
one group over another, the notion of superiority and privilege is an
inevitable component of the social fabric. As such, for even the Palestinian
citizens of Israel proper, tacit and institutional discrimination exists. For
these Palestinians, the fight is a civil rights struggle. For Palestinians
living in the militarily enforced ghettos of the west bank and Gaza, there
are no such rights to fight for. Rule and law serves only for their control,
without the promise of civil rights or liberties. Can there be a democracy
where 1.8 million Palestinians are both "inside" and "outside" the polity?

Americans cannot understand that the basic source of conflict in this area is
settlement and the taking of land. The conflict is about space. As such, the
conflict is more than resistance to a foreign military occupation, but also
resistance to foreign civilian colonists. The ways in which the settlements
have been planned and built has been about controlling the land and
dominating the lives of the Palestinian people.

Palestinian Poet Darwish expresses it well: "The Occupation doesn't content
itself with depriving us of the primary conditions of freedom, but goes onto
deprive us of the bare essentials of a dignified human life, by declaring
constant war on our bodies, and our dreams, on the people and the houses and
the trees, and by committing crimes of war. It does not promise us anything
more than the apartheid system, and the capacity of the sword to defeat the
soul".

------------------------
FIRST PHOTO (jayyous gate check.jpg): This summer 2003 photo shows John P
filming as Palestinian farmers are stopped by Israeli security at a gate in
the "security fence." The farmers are attempting to reach their olive
orchard pictured in photo 2. John reports above that this gate will likely
be closed permanently as an Israeli settlement expands on the other side.
Access has already become very limited.

SECOND PHOTO (siezed land.jpg): Looking back toward the Palestinian village
of Jayyous from an olive orchard siezed for Israeli settlement expansion (the
"security fence" or "apartheid wall" lies between this orchard and the
Palestinian buildings in the background). Jayyous is losing more than two
thirds of its land behind Israel's "security fence."