Jayyus () is a

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

near the west border of the

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

, close to

Qalqilya Qalqilya or Qalqiliya () is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, which serves as the administrative center of the Qalqilya Governorate. The city had a population of 51,683 in 2017. Qalqilya is surrounded by the Israeli West Bank barrier, Israeli We ...

. It is a farming community. According to the

Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS; ) is the official statistical institution of Palestine. Its main task is to provide credible statistical figures at the national and international levels. It is a state institution that provid ...

, the village had a population of 3,478 inhabitants in 2017.

Location

Jayyus (including

Khirbet Sir Khirbet Sir () is a Palestinian town in the Qalqilya Governorate in the eastern West Bank, located 8 kilometers east of Qalqilya. Following its destruction and abandonment due to 16th-century local conflict, Khirbet Sir was likely resettled in ...

) is located - northeast of

Qalqiliya Qalqilya or Qalqiliya () is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, which serves as the administrative center of the Qalqilya Governorate. The city had a population of 51,683 in 2017. Qalqilya is surrounded by the Israeli West Bank wall, with a narr ...

. It is bordered by Baqat al Hatab and

Kafr Laqif Kafr Laqif () is a Palestinian village in the Qalqilya Governorate in the western West Bank, located 22 kilometers southwest of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the village had a population of 1,039 inhabitants i ...

to the east,

Kafr Jamal Kafr Jammal (), is a Palestinian town in the Tulkarm Governorate in the western edge of the West Bank. It is located about halfway between Qalqilyah and Tulkarm, and had a population of 2,855 in 2017. The village is mainly agricultural, and mostl ...

, Kafr Zibad and Kafr ‘Abbush to the south, ‘

Azzun Azzun (also spelled Azzoun) (, from the root word عز ''′izz'' which means honor or esteem) is a Palestinian town in Qalqilya Governorate in the northern West Bank, located 9 kilometers east of Qalqilya and 24 kilometers south of Tulkarm. ...

‘Izbat at Tabib Azzun (also spelled Azzoun) (, from the root word عز ''′izz'' which means honor or esteem) is a Palestinian town in Qalqilya Governorate in the northern West Bank, located 9 kilometers east of Qalqilya and 24 kilometers south of Tulkarm. Azz ...

An Nabi Elyas Nabi Ilyas () is a Palestinian village in the Qalqilya Governorate of the Palestine, in the western West Bank, located two kilometers east of Qalqilya. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, an Nabi Ilyas had a population of ...

and ‘Arab Abu Farda to the west, and the Green Line to the north.

History

At ''Khirbet Sir'', just east of Jayyus, two rock-cut tombs have been found, with a large mound with terraces cut in the sides, and a good

well A well is an excavation or structure created on the earth by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The ...

below.

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

ceramics have also been found.

Ottoman era

Jayyus was incorporated into the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

in 1517 with all of Palestine, and in 1596 it appeared in the tax registers as being in the ''

Nahiya A nāḥiyah ( , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiyeh, nahiya or nahia, is a regional or local type of administrative division that usually consists of a number of villages or sometimes smaller towns. In Tajikistan, it is a second-level divisi ...

'' of Bani Sa'b of the '' Liwa'' of

Nablus Nablus ( ; , ) is a State of Palestine, Palestinian city in the West Bank, located approximately north of Jerusalem, with a population of 156,906. Located between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, it is the capital of the Nablus Governorate and a ...

. It had a population of 24 households and 6 bachelors, all Muslim. The villagers paid taxes on wheat, barley, summer crops, olive trees, occasional revenues, goats and/or beehives; a total of 11,746

akçe The ''akçe'' or ''akça'' (anglicized as ''akche'', ''akcheh'' or ''aqcha''; ; , , in Europe known as '' asper'') was a silver coin mainly known for being the chief monetary unit of the Ottoman Empire. It was also used in other states includi ...

. Half of the revenue went to a Muslim charitable endowment.Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 140 According to

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

Roy Marom Roy Marom (, ) is an Israeli historian and historical geographer. Marom is the curator of the Palestinian Rural History Project, which specializes in the history of the Palestinian countryside during the Ottoman and British Mandate periods. ...

, in the 18th or early 19th centuries, residents of Jayyous affiliated with the Qaysi camp during the Qays and Yaman conflicts, alongside residents of Deir Abu Mash'al and part of the residents of

Bayt Nabala Bayt Nabala or Beit Nabala was a Palestinian Arab village in the Ramle Subdistrict in Palestine that was destroyed during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. The village was in the territory allotted to the Arab state under the 1947 UN Partition Pla ...

. They fought several skirmishes against Yamani rivals from

Qibya Qibya () is a Palestinian village in the West Bank, located northwest of Ramallah and exactly north of the large Israeli city of Modi'in. It is part of the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate, and according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Sta ...

and Dayr Tarif. In 1838,

Robinson Robinson may refer to: People and names * Robinson (name) Fictional characters * Robinson Crusoe, the main character, and title of a novel by Daniel Defoe, published in 1719 Geography * Robinson projection, a map projection used since the 19 ...

noted the village, called ''Jiyus'', as being in the ''Beni Sa'ab'' district, west of Nablus. In the 1860s, the Ottoman authorities granted the village an agricultural plot of land called Ghabat Jayyus in the former confines of the Forest of Arsur (Ar. Al-Ghaba) in the coastal plain, west of the village. In 1870/1871 (1288 AH), an Ottoman census listed the village in the ''

nahiya A nāḥiyah ( , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiyeh, nahiya or nahia, is a regional or local type of administrative division that usually consists of a number of villages or sometimes smaller towns. In Tajikistan, it is a second-level divisi ...

'' (sub-district) of Bani Sa'b. In 1882, the PEF's ''

Survey of Western Palestine The PEF Survey of Palestine was a series of surveys carried out by the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF) between 1872 and 1877 for the completed Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) and in 1880 for the soon abandoned Survey of Eastern Palestine. The ...

'' described ''Jiyus'' as a "moderate-sized stone village on a ridge, with

olive The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'' ("European olive"), is a species of Subtropics, subtropical evergreen tree in the Family (biology), family Oleaceae. Originating in Anatolia, Asia Minor, it is abundant throughout the Mediterranean ...

s to the south-east. It appears to be an ancient site, having rock-cut

tomb A tomb ( ''tumbos'') or sepulchre () is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be called '' immurement'', alth ...

s and ancient wells." In the 19th century and early 20th century the village was dominated by the Palestinian el-Jayusah or Jayyusi clan.

British Mandate era

In the

1922 census of Palestine The 1922 census of Palestine was the first census carried out by the authorities of the British Mandate of Palestine, on 23 October 1922. The reported population was 757,182, including the military and persons of foreign nationality. The divis ...

conducted by the British Mandate authorities, ''Jaiyus'' had a population of 433, all

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

s,Barron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Tulkarem, p
28
/ref> increasing in the 1931 census to 569, again all Muslim, in a total of 147 houses. In the 1945 statistics the population of Jayyus consisted of 830 MuslimsDepartment of Statistics, 1945, p
20
/ref> with a land area of 12,571

dunam A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; ; ; ), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area analogous in role (but not equal) to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amo ...

s according to an official land and population survey.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p
75
/ref> Of this, 1,556 dunams were designated for plantations and irrigable land, 2,155 for

cereal A cereal is a grass cultivated for its edible grain. Cereals are the world's largest crops, and are therefore staple foods. They include rice, wheat, rye, oats, barley, millet, and maize ( Corn). Edible grains from other plant families, ...

s, while 22 dunams were built-up areas. File:Jaiyus 1943.jpg, Jayyous 1943 1:20,000 File:Azzun 1945.jpg, Jayyous 1945 1:250,000

Jordanian era

In the wake of the

1948 Arab–Israeli War The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, also known as the First Arab–Israeli War, followed the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, civil war in Mandatory Palestine as the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. The civil war becam ...

, and after the

1949 Armistice Agreements The 1949 Armistice Agreements were signed between Israel and Egypt,Jordanian rule.

Post-1967

Since the

Six-Day War The Six-Day War, also known as the June War, 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states, primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan from 5 to 10June ...

in 1967, Jayyus has been under

Israeli occupation Israel has occupied the Golan Heights of Syria and the Palestinian territories since the Six-Day War of 1967. It has previously occupied the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt and southern Lebanon as well. Prior to 1967, control of the Palestinian terr ...

. After the 1995 accords, 26.6% of Jayyus land is defined as Area B land, while the remaining 73.4% is defined as

Area C Area C (; ) is the fully Israeli-controlled territory in the West Bank, defined as the whole area outside the Palestinian enclaves (Areas A and B). Area C constitutes about 61 percent of the West Bank territory, containing most Israeli settle ...

land.Jayyus Town Profile (including Khirbet Sir Locality)
ARIJ, p. 17 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

farmer A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer ...

s 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, Jayyus 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 The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Jap ...

'', 50 percent of the once-prosperous Jayyus villagers are now dependent on foreign food aid because their agricultural land has been cut off by the wall. In January 2005

Ta'ayush Ta'ayush is a grassroots movement engaging since 2000 in non-violent collective action and civil disobedience in Palestine/Israel. Ta'ayush (, ; lit. "coexistence" or "life in common") is a grassroots volunteer movement established in the fall of ...

activists along with

Gush Shalom Gush Shalom () is an Israeli peace activism group founded by Uri Avnery in 1993. Avnery–a former journalist, Irgun and Knesset member–also led the organization till his death in 2018. In 2010, the American Friends Service Committee has desc ...

, the

Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) () is a group opposed to Israeli settlements, which describes itself as "an Israeli peace and human rights organization dedicated to ending the occupation of the Palestinian territories ...

Machsom Watch Machsom Watch, or Checkpoint Watch, is a human rights organization of Israeli women who monitor and document the conduct of soldiers and policemen at checkpoints in the West Bank.

and

Anarchists Against the Wall Anarchists Against the Wall (AAtW; ) sometimes called "Anarchists Against Fences" or "Jews Against Ghettos", was a direct action group composed of Israeli anarchists and anti-authoritarians who opposed the construction of the Israeli West Bank ...

, 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 Jayyus 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."

According to ARIJ, Israel confiscated 753 dunums of land from Jayyus in order to construct the

Israeli settlement Israeli settlements, also called Israeli colonies, are the civilian communities built by Israel throughout the Israeli-occupied territories. They are populated by Israeli citizens, almost exclusively of Israeli Jews, Jewish identity or ethni ...

Tzofim Tzufim (), or Tzufin (), is an Israeli settlement in the West Bank. Located north of Alfei Menashe and Qalqilyah and northeast of Kfar Saba, it is organised as a community settlement and falls under the jurisdiction of Shomron Regional Council ...

Falkirk Falkirk ( ; ; ) is a town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow. Falkirk had a resident population of 32,422 at the ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, maintains a

sister-city A sister city or a twin town relationship is a form of legal or social agreement between two geographically and politically distinct localities for the purpose of promoting cultural and commercial ties. While there are early examples of inte ...

partnership with Jayyus.

Demography

Local origins

Residents of the village originated from the village of Beita, near

, and

Majdal Yaba Majdal Yaba () was a Palestinian Arab village in the Ramle Subdistrict, northeast of Ramla and east of Jaffa. A walled Jewish settlement name Migdal Aphek (; Ancient Greek: ''Αφεχού πύργος'') stood at the same site as early as th ...

, a now depopulated village near

Rosh HaAyin Rosh HaAyin (; ) is a city in the Central District of Israel. It is located in the eastern ravine of the Sharon River, opposite the Samaria Mountains. The city is named after its location at the source of the Yarkon River (“Ras” meaning sou ...

.Grossman, D. (1986). "Oscillations in the Rural Settlement of Samaria and Judaea in the Ottoman Period". in Shomron studies. Dar, S., Safrai, S., (eds). Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House. p. 346

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * *

External links

Welcome To Jayyus
*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 11
IAAWikimedia commons

Jayyus Town (including Khirbet Sir) (Fact Sheet)

Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem The Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem (ARIJ; ) is a Palestinian NGO founded in 1990 with its main office in Bethlehem in the West Bank. ARIJ is actively working on research projects in the fields of management of natural resources, water m ...

(ARIJ)
Jayyus Town Profile (including Khirbet Sir Locality)
ARIJ
Jayyus, aerial photo
ARIJ
Development priorities and needs in Jayyus (including Khirbet Sir Locality)
ARIJ

.
UNRWA Case Study on Jayyous and Falamyeh
* ttp://www.antoninefriendshiplink.co.uk The Antonine Friendship Link {{Authority control Villages in the West Bank Qalqilya Governorate Municipalities of Palestine