Jayyous

Jayyous
Other transcription(s)
 • Arabic جيوس
 • Also spelled Jayyus (official)
Jayyous

Location of Jayyous within the Palestinian Territories

Coordinates: 32°12′04.77″N 35°02′05.58″E / 32.2013250°N 35.0348833°E / 32.2013250; 35.0348833Coordinates: 32°12′04.77″N 35°02′05.58″E / 32.2013250°N 35.0348833°E / 32.2013250; 35.0348833
Palestine grid 153/178
Governorate Qalqilya
Government
 • Type Village council
Population (2006)
 • Jurisdiction 3,300
Name meaning Jiyus, personal name[1]

Jayyous (Arabic: جيوس‎) 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.[2]

History

At Khirbet Sir, just east of Jayyous, two rock-cut tombs have been found, with a large mound with terraces cut in the sides, and a good well below.[3] Byzantine ceramics have also been found.[4]

Ottoman era

Jayyous was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517 with all of Palestine, and in 1596 it appeared in the tax registers as being in the Nahiya of Bani Sa'b of the Liwa of Nablus. It had a population of 24 households and 6 batchelors, all Muslim. The villagers paid taxes on wheat, barley, summer crops, olive trees, occasional revenues, goats and/or beehives.[5]

In 1882, the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine described Jiyus as a "moderate-sized stone village on a ridge, with olives to the south-east. It appears to be an ancient site, having rock-cut tombs and ancient wells."[6]

In the 19th century and early 20th century the village was dominated by the Palestinian el-Jayusah family.[7]

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Jaiyus had a population of 433, all Muslims,[8] increasing in the 1931 census to 569, again all Muslim, in a total of 147 houses.[9]

In 1945 the population of Jayyous consisted of 830 Arabs with a land area of 12,571 dunams according to an official land and population survey.[10] Of this, 1,556 dunams were designated for plantations and irrigable land, 2,155 for cereals,[11] while 22 dunams were built-up areas.[12]

1948-1967

In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Jayyous came under Jordanian rule.

Post-1967

After the Six-Day War in 1967, Jayyous has been under Israeli occupation.

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.[13] 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.[14] 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.[15] 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."[16]

Falkirk, Scotland, maintains a sister-city partnership with Jayyous. A history of this twinning can be found at The Antonine Friendship Link.[17]

References

  1. ↑ Palmer, 1881, p. 183
  2. ↑ Projected Mid -Year Population for Qalqilya Governorate by Locality 2004- 2006 Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics
  3. ↑ Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 198
  4. ↑ Dauphin, 1998, p. 978
  5. ↑ Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 140
  6. ↑ Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 165
  7. ↑ Stuart Macalister, 1905, pp. 355-356
  8. ↑ Barron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Tulkarem, p. 28
  9. ↑ Mills, 1932, p. 55
  10. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 75
  11. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 125
  12. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 175
  13. ↑ UNRWA
  14. ↑ USATODAY.com - Israel's wall hems in livelihoods and dreams
  15. ↑ Palestinian farmers fear advance of West Bank wall, by Sharmila Devi, The Financial Times, September 23rd, 2006
  16. ↑ Scoop Independent world news from a Gush Shalom column
  17. ↑ Twinning with Palestine

Bibliography

External links

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