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Jayyous
Abdul Latif, the hydrologist working in Jayyous,
with the Palestinian Hydrology Group, explains what is happening in Jayyous, how its
economy and ariculture are being destroyed by the wall, in his
article that appeared in Christian Science Monitor (quoted by Angela Godfrey in the article that follows this section).
"The situation in Jayyous is a microcosm of what is happening
all over the West Bank. Villagers must apply for Israeli permits to
access their farmland; these permits are not always granted. Access
is also restricted by allowing passage through the gate in the wall
only at certain times. With such restricted access, it is hard for
farmers to maintain their plots, and much of the farmland is
deteriorating. The neighboring Israeli settlement, which will cut
across the farmers' main access road, will force farmers to take a
longer route - a five- or six-hour round trip by donkey cart. With
no overnight stays allowed, there will be no way to cultivate the
fields.
In 2003, farmers in Jayyous lost an entire harvest of guava,
vegetable seedlings perished in greenhouses, and orange trees died -
all because the gate remained closed for four weeks in September and
October. So far, 15,000 citrus trees around Jayyous have died
because farmers denied access are unable to irrigate and tend their
groves.
With thousands of trees uprooted for the construction of the wall
and countless trees abandoned for lack of access, we find ourselves
in the midst of an environmental disaster.
That disaster is exacerbated by restricted access to water. Jayyous
has traditionally relied on six groundwater wells, all of which are
now behind the wall, forcing us to purchase water from another
village. The loss of our water and farmland has meant the
deterioration of the village's ecosystem and our ability to live on
our resources. Once the wall is completed, more than 90 percent of
the available water in the West Bank will be on the other side or
under Israeli control.
There are economic costs to the wall, too. Merchants from
surrounding towns used to purchase directly from the farms, but now
farmers must sell their produce in small markets where prices are
lower. Between March and July, 15-kilogram boxes of tomatoes that
should not sell for less than $3.50 had to be sold for 30 cents.
This year's olive harvest has been similarly dismal.
Olive oil that should sell for $5 per kilogram is down to $2 - the
break-even price is $3 per kilogram. At these prices, reinvestment
in the land isn't feasible."
Overview of Political Significance of Jayyous
Angela Godfrey
Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions
December 25, 2004
There are three main reasons why Jayyous is so important, and indeed
possibly the most important issue at the moment in the whole scenario
of the settlement enterprise, wall, Occupation, Israeli intentions,
Gaza withdrawal, etc. (albeit not more important than people dying in
Gaza, I don't debate that priority..). But as we now consider the
meaning of "viability", Jayyous is all about viability. Not just of
that farming, agricultural community, but of its vital role in the
Palestinian economy, and thus its contribution generally to Palestinian
viability.
There are three cases where
settlement expansion is suddenly exploding because of the wall,
bringing into focus the real intentions of building the wall. They
are:
Jayyous/Zufin with the expansion at Nofei Zufim (the largest
expansion onto Palestinian land... the hugest landgrab)
Nof HaSharon and Nirit/ Alfei Menashe
Har Gilo/Gilo West and Wallaje (+ at a later date a new city down
there in SW Jerusalem, Givat Yael if I've the name right)
Without the wall, private contractors would not be interested in any
of these places (all the above are private contractors - I guess
Israel (government) then is not building... as they have said to US
Consulate a few months ago as to Jerusalem settlement building, I
believe), whereas now, with the wall, no Israelis will be living
next to "Arabs" where once those areas were not at all
sought after. I presume Israel will also be using the excuse that
this is land that was declared state land in the pre-Road Map era,
within the settlement's master plan, which evades legality.
2. Politically the link is now easy to see between the Wall and
settlement expansion (especially in the seam zone between the Green
Line and the Fence/Wall) despite all past promises and statements as
to Israel's intentions. The facts on the ground now speak louder
than words. Israeli past obfuscation as to not wanting to expand
settlements, allowing farmers access to their land, the security
aspects of the wall being the only imperative, of the temporary
nature of the Wall, all of this can now be seen as yet another
Israeli bluff. A smokescreen, behind which the building and its
strategy were planned.
In Jayyous this is the most striking, because the Palestinians in
this village are a farming community which is now being completely
cut off from its land. No farmers are affected elsewhere as badly,
and therefore threatened with "transfer" once they have
lost their only means of providing for themselves. In fact, this was
one of the major issues in the Bidu/Beit Souriq High Court case, but
those farmers were losing some land, whilst being able to keep other
land; the court ruled against that wall route in order to save them
and Mishael Cheshin even asked the State if they ever considered
giving farmers alternative "temporary" land in order to be
able to support themselves (the answer was no...). They were not
faced with the wall completely keeping them away from all their
land, until it has dried out, and with settlement expansion coming
right up to the fence so that they will not even be able to go
through it to any land which may be undeveloped or un-annexed. I
don't have to tell you Jayyous area is the best agricultural land
that the Palestinians have. With water sources privately owned
(albeit with Israeli meters on them and levels of water fixed at
early 1980s rations, with huge fines if over pumped...) I recollect
when I was in Jayyous researching for Chris Hedges' visit, the
farmers told us that within three days of the work starting on the
building of the wall infrastructure, one of the privately-owned
wells was completely destroyed by fire. No one could prove who had
done it, but the security workers for the wall building were the
prime suspects. They also told me that one of their major worries
was that the fuel for the pump generators had to be brought from the
village and they were worried that this left them vulnerable as to
the gate system; in the early days, many of them lived in tents on
their land to avoid the restrictions of the gate system -- this was
swiftly put paid to by Border Police nightly raids and soldiers
coming around for similar target practice.
3. In Jayyous, the best side of Palestinian modern agriculture has
until now been remarkable there. The irrigation system, especially,
is not paralleled in any other farming community - all of which are
more primitive, and as I recall from my visits there, this is the
result of international donor aid agency hydrology projects. This is
being deliberately destroyed, and without it Palestine's viability,
as I said above, will be seriously prejudiced. Apparently, I am
told, this modern agricultural sector has always uplifted and
stimulated the other weaker parts of Palestinian society - for
example, it has helped to minimise the import of fresh produce. I
imagine it has also contributed to the maintenance of low prices for
basic fruit and vegetables; since the Baka el Sharkiya and Zeita
areas are also badly hit now, I think I am right in presuming that
fresh produce (which is not, I think, part of the food aid WFP et
al. handouts - rice, oil, sugar) must be seriously missed by the
poor. 50% unemployment generally, that more or less means everyone,
no? The Gaza water available to Palestinians is brackish, so even
there I don't suppose they are able to substitute for the market. So
in a certain way we are ghettoising and/or starving them out, onto
higher ground and from there ...
The Israeli strategy (IDF and settlers and government) has been to
target the landowners who do not have water rights, either by
declaring their lands "state land" or by weakening their
hold on their land by cutting them off from their water supply or
irrigation system. Once the land is dried out, and the Palestinians
are denied access in various ways (labourers' access denied, or
keeping the gates closed for weeks at a time during Israeli high
holidays, or making hours the gates are open incompatible with basic
farming needs, military courts not allowing the court file to be
opened, etc.), that land then only has value as prime real estate
for building. In Jayyous, it is no coincidence that the owner of the
Lidar company which is going to be developing the Nofei Zufim
expansion of Zufin is Israel's reputedly wealthiest man, Lev
Leviev.
A new map will only be available after the New Year, and that is top
priority then. When our mapmaker was on the land on Saturday with EU
Ambassador for the Peace Process in the Middle East, Marc Otte (I
may have his title wrong), he saw for himself the situation is far
more serious than he'd hitherto understood. He needs to speak also
with the lawyers and obtain a copy of the Jayyous file from the
military authorities. Until now this has been denied to the
farmers/landowners.
As to the 300 trees that have now been uprooted during the three
sessions the bulldozer worked, one asks why didn't they wait a few
days to check the Palestinians' claims? To open the old court file
and see what exactly was the land expropriated by the state or sold
by the Palestinians, and what is the land that they are working on
... But they couldn't wait, one presumes. They couldn't afford to
wait. They needed to flatten and destroy while the situation was
still unclear and while they were being given army backup to work on
the land (one of the lawyers for the Palestinians told me that there
was no point in going to court for a restraining order as the
settlers had deeds showing they owned the land, even though the
Palestinians dispute the authenticity of those deeds...) And why
does the settler lawyer, Moshe Glick, agree to meetings (or indeed
to freeze work on the land) and not carry through on his promises
and appointments?
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