Introduction
A number of measures have been taken on the people of Jayyous in the name of "security" in order to facilitate the ‘expansion’ of the illegal Israeli settlement Zufim being built on land confiscated from the village. The projected settlement ‘expansion area’, known as Nofei Zufim, includes the construction of 1,200 – 1,500 new housing units, and it sits directly on top of the only current agricultural road by which Jayyous farmers can travel to their land, 75% of which is isolated from the village behind the Annexation Wall.
The Wall in Jayyous deviates up to 6 km from the Green Line (the 1948 Armistice Line) and encircles about 500 homes and separates the people of Jayyous from greenhouses, citrus orchards and olive groves. More than 60% of the families in the village of 3,200 people depend entirely on agriculture for their livelihood. 69 Jayyous farmers have never been issued permits to access their land, and many farmers have been unable to renew their permits. Those residents who have been issued permits to access their land may do so by way of one of two Israeli military controlled gates in Jayyous.
Only a small number of farmers, who live on the south side of Jayyous—and a Bedouin family who lives outside the Wall—are permitted to use the South Gate, or Gate 26. The main gate used in Jayyous is the North Gate (actually to the west), or Gate 25. It is located on the only agricultural road that passes from the village to the farmers’ cultivated land near Zufim settlement. Eight similar agricultural roads were destroyed during the construction of the Wall from October 2002-July 2003.
These pictures are from the village of Jayyous, at the North Gate and near the southern part of the village on lands adjacent to the Wall where animal barracks which provide dairy for the village and income for seven families have been issued demolition orders by the Israeli civil administration.
For more information about Jayyous see:
Jayyous village website- http://www.jayyousonline.org/englishweb/englishindex.htm
B'Tselem's recent publication "Under the Guise of Security"- http://www.btselem.org/english/Publications/Summaries/200509_Under_the_Guise_of_Security.asp
