The West Bank Barrier

Profile: Jayous

Among the most agriculturally productive regions in the West Bank, the Qalqilya governorate has been negatively impacted by movement restrictions and by the Barrier. Within the Qalqilya district itself, Jayyous and neighbouring Falamyeh, were well known for their intensively-irrigated agriculture which produced vegetables and citrus fruit, together with figs, apricots, loquats, mangoes and almonds. There are also thousands of olive trees.

Although Jayyous lies on the ‘West Bank’ side of the Barrier, which stretches six kilometers into the West Bank at this point, four thousand trees were uprooted for the Barrier and 125 acres of land levelled. The Barrier isolates some 9,000 dunums, representing between 75 to 90 percent of its fertile land. Also isolated are 120 greenhouses belonging to Jayyous and Falamyeh and six water wells. Jayyous now shares water with Azzun from a well located between the two villages, which covers less than 50 percent of its needs, with water rationed to two hours per day in summer.

In December 2004 an Israeli construction company began land leveling works on about 80 dunums of land isolated west of the Barrier for the expansion of Tsufin settlement. This expansion is still stopped pending a resolution of the conflicting ownership claims to the land in question.

In May 2005, the IDF confiscated between 8-9 dunums of land on the ‘West Bank’ side of the Barrier for the construction of an access road from Jayyous to the Falamye South gate. It is expected that in future both gates in Jayyous will be permanently closed and all permit holders will be expected to use the southern Falamye gate

On 5 May 2005 the Islamic Coalition for Change and Improvement won the majority seats in the municipal elections. Subsequently the new municipal board (composed of a majority Islamic Coalition and also Fateh members) selected a new mayor.

Access to Farmland

Gates

There are two gates in Jayyous: the southern gate and the northern gate.

The Southern Gate

The southern gate was closed to public access on 23 November 2003. Since this time, the IDF has only allowed the Abu Shareb family, which lives isolated behind the Barrier, to access this on a daily basis.The IDF open the gate for the mother and the children to reach the school twice a day, but the schedule is erratic and the gate is frequently closed altogether. Ali Abu Shareb, the father of the family, has access occasionally. The gate is also open to a handful of farmers during the olive harvest season.

The IDF have approached the Abu Shareb family on a number of occasions since 2003 in an attempt to coerce them to leave their property. The IDF has threatened to surround the shelter with barbed wire on all sides, leaving only a small passage for the family to use, as well offering equivalent accommodation in any location of the family’s choice in the West Bank. To date, the family has resisted all efforts at evacuation. In the meantime, ICRC facilitates the regular supply of water tankers to the family’s house.

As of early February 2004, farmers are complaining that the IDF taunts Palestinian youths who are either working or lingering near the southern gate. The youth will often throw stones and the IDF responds with tear gas or plastic-coated metal bullets. (Taunts like, "This is our land now, you will have to leave’ and "Oh, you poor Palestinians, we have taken all you land. Poor you, how sad".) Villagers fear there will be a more serious incident if the situation continues.

The southern gate is also the only access for farmers from Azzun to access their land that is located south of Jayyous. Only a handful of farmers have permits to access through this gate and they are at the mercy of the erratic opening hours. During the olive harvest the distance between the gate and their fields prevents them from bringing in the harvest. Villagers from Azzun have lobbied the Israeli authorities to open a more convenient gate opposite Nabi Elias. The case is still pending.

The Northern Gate

The northern gate is accessible to farmers from Jayyous with access permits. Following the completion of the Barrier in Jayyous in September 2003, the gate was initially open for a couple of months and farmers could pass easily upon presentation of their identification cards.

In November 2003, the IDF issued new gate opening hours for a total of 70 minutes each day:

0645 - 0715
1230 - 1250
1615 – 1635

Initial reports by the INGO Ecumenical Accompaniers (resident in the village) published in January 2004 revealed that opening hours were highly erratic and that there was a delay of 44 minutes in opening this gate in the morning and a delay of 35 minutes in the evening.

In late 2003, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) filed a petition on behalf of a number of villages in the area (including Khirbet Jubara, Falamyeh, Faraoun and Jayyous) to extend the gate opening hours to at least four hours a day. On February 9, 2004 the IDF did issue new opening which took ACRI’s petition into consideration:

0700 – 0830
1230 – 1330
1700 – 1830

However, procedures at the gate continued to be erratic. The IDF frequently opened the gates late or closed them early and sometimes, as a punitive measure or due to a Jewish holiday, closed the gates altogether.

In late April 2005, the IDF presented the Jayyous municipality with a military order stating that the IDF planned to close both gates in Jayyous, as well as the northern gate in Falamyeh, and direct all traffic through the southern Falamye gate. In order to facilitate access between Jayyous and Falamyeh, the IDF planned to expand an existing dirt road due north to reach the southern Falamyeh gate. The IDF issued confiscation orders for nearly 9 dunums of land on the ‘West Bank’ side of the Barrier and by early June 2005 the IDF started construction on this by-pass road. It is expected to be completed soon.

On 22 May 2005, pending a High Court Decision on the question of the gates, the IDF opened Jayyous gate continuously between 0600 and 1800 hours on a daily basis. However, the gate is still subject to closures by the IDF during Jewish holidays, as preventative measures (during Disengagement, for example) or as a punitive measure.

It is expected that the northern Jayyous Gate will be permanently closed eventually and that all traffic in the area will be redirected to the Falamyeh south gate. This will double or treble the distance farmers have to travel to the distances created by the loss of traditional farming roads as a result of the original construction of the Barrier.

It has also been posited that the changes in gate access stands in connection with the construction of Tsufin North. Farmers owning land to the west of Tsufin North would not be able to access their lands via the current Jayyous gate. Entering via the Jayyous south gate could enable them, albeit via a far detour, to reach their land whilst bypassing the Israeli settlement.

Harrassment

Observers from the Ecumenical Accompaniers in Jayyous have documented the soldiers’ treatment of farmers passing through the gates to reach their land in the period from December 2005 to February 2006. (Observations of the Jayyous Gates, 17 February 2006).

Accordingly, farmers seeking to access their land are subject to various forms of harassment, including having to lift their shirts to cross the gates (including toddlers), being denied to bring farm tools and fertilizers to the land, intimidation of farmers at gunpoint. There is also inconsistency in the numbering of the gates (two parallels systems with two and three digits), often preventing farmers from accessing their land if the soldiers at the gate aren’t aware of or don’t understand the different systems.

Permits

• Upon completion of the Barrier in July 2003 and through September of that year, up to 50 farmers initially camped out on the "Israeli" side of the Barrier for fear that they would be unable to access their land and greenhouses. The sole agricultural gate was effectively closed at the beginning of October. On the night of 14 October, a large number of IDF rounded up most of the farmers and ejected them to the ‘Palestinian’ side of the Barrier. Eight shepherds and 1,500 sheep were also moved.

• In mid-October 2003, villagers found four new military orders pinned on rocks on the ‘Israeli’ side of the Barrier. The orders established a Closed Military Zone (CMZ) and required Jayyous residents above the age of twelve to apply for permits to access agricultural land in the CMZ. On principle, the community refused to apply but permits were delivered by the IDF on 19 October, leaving farmers with the choice of rejecting them or watching their crops and vegetables perish. 630 permits were originally issued, which also included permits for farmers for neighbouring villages, including Sir, Kufr Jamal, Qalqilya, and Falamyeh. Other recipients included a seven-year-old girl, a Jayyous resident who has spent the last fifteen years in Australia, and a deceased person.

• By November 2003, the IDF implemented the permit system by which landowning farmers and labourers had to apply for access permits from the Israeli DCO in Qalqilya in order to reach their land isolated behind the Barrier. On 22 January 2004, the Qedummim CA introduced new regulations to obtain permits, effectively enabling only landowning farmers to obtain these permits after following a very bureaucratic procedure and paying back taxes. The introduction of these new regulations raised the level of tension in the village markedly. In early February, Palestinian youth tried to burn the ‘northern’ gate which was followed by a period of harassment of the villagers by the IDF, including the firing or tear gas, stun grenades and even live rounds at the municipality building. Villagers even reported that the IDF taunted them from the loudspeakers on their jeeps, making derisive remarks in Arabic.

• While the IDF dropped the requirement to pay back taxes by March 2005, requirements to qualify for a permit have become increasingly stringent over time, requiring applicants to prove a direct link to the land by means of land possession/ownership documents. While in other areas this has meant in practice that only landowners and their immediate families can obtain permits, in Jayyous extended family and labourers (if confirmed by the municipality to have a link to the land) are able to obtain permits. Nonetheless, the process by which the land ownership documents are obtained and certified remains very arduous and needs to be repeated annually. Permits are only for pedestrians. Tractors, trucks and donkey carts require separate permits.

• Initially, the mayor emphasised that the villagers reject the permit system as a whole and demanded unrestricted access to their lands. The municipality, therefore, did not keep records of who did or did not receive permits. However, other sources reported that at first 130 persons remained without permit, the official reason being ‘security considerations’. Among these were 30 greenhouse owners (each owning more than one greenhouse) and 16 experienced greenhouse workers. Many fruit farm owners have also did not receive permits.

• In August 2005, the new mayor of Jayyous has requested that all those who need a permit and have not obtained one should register with the municipality. According to this list, there remain 20 landowners in Jayyous, including the mayor himself, who do not have a permit.

• The mayor reports that 95 per cent of all rejections, however, are based on security considerations. This is different from other areas, especially in Tulkarm, where in many cases a majority of applicants are rejected for failure to adequately prove a link to the land.

Demolitions

In February 2004, the IDF issued demolition orders to six farmers in the southern part of the Barrier on the grounds that the structures were located within the 300-metre buffer zone on either side of the Barrier. The Jerusalem Law Society has obtained a stop order against the demolition, claiming that the structures were located in Area B and not Area C as contended by Israel.

Settlement Construction

In November 2004, an Israeli construction company began uprooting trees and leveling some 60 dunums of land belonging to Jayyous farmers. One month later, in late December 2004, more trees were uprooted and an additional 20 dunums leveled. The land levelling is in preparation for the construction of Tsufin North, the expansion of the existing Tsufin settlement, located just south and west of Jayyous. Residents fear that if this satellite settlement is built it will make access to their land to the west of the settlement impossible in future.

The construction was halted following complaints lodged by the Palestinian owners of the land (from Jayyous) with the Israeli DCL and the Israeli police. The families maintain that the Israeli construction company started construction on the basis of forged land sale documents. The case is still pending with the Israeli authorities and construction has not resumed.

The Bedouin

The Barrier has isolated just over 100 Bedouin living between the barrier and the Green Line. One of these families is associated with Jayyous village, the remainder live near the Tsufin settlement and are related to the Bedouin living in the Alfei Menashe enclave south of Qalqilya.

The Abu Shareb house is located just beyond the south gate at Jayyous village and are not related to the Bedouin families near Tsufin. There are six people living in the house at this time. Until now, the family has resisted all attempts by the IDF to force them to leave the area. Water supply to the family’s home, which is not connected to the town’s water network, is facilitated by ICRC. In February 2006, UNRWA registered the family as refugees. They received their first UNRWA food distribution in late January 2006.

There Bedouin beyond the Tsufin gate number 100 and are all from the Jihademeh family which originally came from Ramadin but have been living in their present location since 1958. The area is known as Arab ar Ramadin ash Shamali and they are related to the Bedouin of Arab Ar Ramadin al Janubi and the Arab Abu Farda. However, they are totally cut off from these family members. The Tsufin Bedouin are all refugees. They use UNRWA health care facilities in Qalqilya, where they also collect their food rations.

The Bedouin have to pass through the IDF checkpoint every time to go to Qalqilya for medical treatment at the UNRWA clinic, to collect their UNRWA rations and /or for shopping. They are no longer able to visit their relatives in the Alfei Menashe enclave because they are not able to obtain the necessary permits.

About 15 Bedouin refugee children use the gate daily to go to school and are often delayed while all bags are searched. They regularly arrive late for lessons.

Harrassement from the settlers is not common except when the Bedouin go to land close to the settlement boundaries. Most of their agricultural land is outside the seam zone around Nabi Elias village, passing through the gate each time. Since the building of the settlement and the barrier, land accessible for animal grazing has substantially diminished.

All residents over the age of 12 require and IDF permit to pass through the gate. The permit state the place of residence as being the place on the PA ID cards. There is an additional line saying "but have the right to live in the seam zone". Most families have Nabi Elias as their address but a few have Qalqilya and one family is registered in Ramadin (Hebron). However, there are five adults living in the seams zone area who do not have PA ID cards and thus they cannot leave the area.

Between March and June 2004 the Bedouin received ‘warning to stop building’ and demolition orders for all twelve of their houses/dwellings in the area and for some of their animal sheds. An Israeli human rights organization intervened on their behalf and so far no demolitions have occurred.

Health

• There is one Palestinian Authority clinic in the village which offers primary health care. While the clinic is staffed by a nurse from Jayyous six days a week, a doctor and a lab technician (both from Azzun) come three times a week. For secondary and tertiary health care villagers go to Tulkarm. Refugees attend the UNRWA hospital in Qalqilya. The Barrier has caused no discernible deterioration in health service provision in the village.

Education

• There are three schools in the village: Boys’ Elementary (Grades 1-6); Boys’ Preparatory (7-12); Girls’ School (1-12). All pupils are from Jayyous or from adjoining villages on the Palestinian side of the Barrier. Many teachers are from Qalqilya and because the Barrier has severed older, direct routes to Qalqilya now reach Jayyous through the gate at Azzun.

Socio-Economic issues

• In total, the farming land behind the Barrier in Jayyous produced an estimated nine million kilograms of fruit and seven million kilograms of vegetables annually, providing 65,000 work days. The principal market for produce was Nablus, Tulkarm and Qalqilya with the bulk going to Nablus. Vendors would come directly to Jayyous’ farmers to fill their trucks and Israeli wholesalers came to Jayyous daily to buy produce. Now, direct access to Nablus, Tulkarm and Qalqilya is impossible (or vice versa) and the major wholesale market for produce from Jayyous is Beita, near Nablus. Wholesale prices for produce (direct from the farmer) have plummeted: at the same time there is a shortage of available food in the local market and prices for the consumer have risen.

• Some 120 greenhouses belonging to Jayyous and the neighbouring village of Falamyeh are isolated behind the Barrier. The tomatoes, cucumbers, beans and sweet peppers which are cultivated require constant care otherwise they quickly fall prey to disease and rot. Frequent closures, as a punitive measure, during Jewish holidays or during the ‘Disengagement’, for example, jeopardize the uninterrupted care that is ordinarily required. Many farmers often sleep on their land west of the ‘barrier’ during crucial times for fearing of being isolated on the other side when their fields require the most attention.

• In addition to preventing cultivation and the export of fruit and vegetables, restrictions at the gate also prevents the import of fertiliser and pesticides, diesel for the generators and pumps, fodder for grazing animals and seedlings for the winter crop

• As many as 12,000 thousand of Jayyous’s olive trees are also isolated beyond the Barrier. During the olive harvest the whole village goes to collect olives many families had to make arrangements with those farmers who have permits to pick the trees on their behalf. According to the former mayor, those who collected received 2/3 of the harvest and the owners of the land received 1/3 only.

Humanitarian Assistance

• 300 families are totally dependent on farming with the remaining supplementing their income from the land. Of these, 130 lost their jobs in farming to the Barrier and are new recipients of humanitarian support. Other recipients are formers labourers in Israel who are now unemployed. In total, there are 200 families dependent on humanitarian support, mainly from WFP and UNRWA.

• According to the new mayor, today about 50 percent of all men and 85 per cent of all women are unemployed. The PA’s Ministry of Labour distributes unemployment benefits to between 30 and 40 people in the village every three months on a rotating basis.