Jayyous

Jayyous ( ) is a Palestinian village near the west border of the West Bank , close to Qalqilya . It is a farming community. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics , the village had a population of approximately 3,307 inhabitants in 2006.¹ In the 1800's and early 1900's the village was ruled by the largest Palestinian family, the Jayousi (Al-Jayyousi) family. The village is located in an area directly affected by the Israeli-built barrier and around 75 per cent of the village's farming land is on the other side of the wall. In order to get to their land the farmers need to use one of two gates, North gate or South gate, or gates number 943 and 979 respectively. The two gates are supposed to be open for three short periods a day. In June 2005, the gates were usually closed, and farmers were staging regular protests at the gates. As of February 2007, the gates are open for only three hours per day - one hour each morning, afternoon and evening on average. In 2002, Jayyous became the first village to mount a non-violent campaign with Israeli and international participation against the construction of the wall and the expansion of settlements on its land. According to The Financial Times , 50 percent of the once-prosperous Jayyous villagers are now dependent on foreign food aid because their agricultural land has been cut off by the wall. In January 2005 Ta'ayush activists along with Gush Shalom , the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions , Machsom Watch and Anarchists Against the Wall , together with residents of the Palestinian village, began to plant hundreds of olive saplings which they had brought with them to the plot of land where the bulldozers of the settlers had uprooted hundreds of olive trees. Advocate Wiam Shbeyta , an activist of the Ta'ayush movement, said: "In spite of the police and army assertions, we do not recognise the ownership of the settlers over this land. This land belongs to the Jayyous villagers and the company "Geulat HaKarka" which is associated with the settlers took control of it on the false assertion that it was sold to them. The matter is still awaiting legal review, and we will not allow the settlers to dictate facts on the ground, to grab Palestinian lands and to commence establishing a new settlement on it." Falkirk , Scotland , maintains a sister-city partnership with Jayyous. A history of this twinning can be found at The Antonine Friendship Link .²