Visit to Villages: Jamma’in and Urif
MAIN POINTS: The olive harvest in October is always a time of harassment by Israeli settlers. The Israeli and international volunteers who help with the picking deter the settlers to a certain degree. It would be a very good thing if more volunteers were available for more villages. The boys’ High School in Urif is in a very serious and difficult position. It is situated at the edge of the village, opposite the settlement Yitzhar. The school is in constant danger of being pelted by rocks thrown at the windows by the settlers.
Jamma’in: We spoke with N. the Secretary of the Council. We talked with her the last time we were in Jamma’in and she welcomed us like old friends. She is a highly educated woman, fluent in English, and ready to talk with us.
Olive Harvest: Jamma’in is near the settlement Tapuach, and suffers from settlers’ harassment in several ways. First, during the olive harvest, settlers came to the groves and tried to chase the farmers away. The organized Israeli and International helpers who came to work with the farmers of Jammain made a big difference and the village is very grateful for their help.
A second conflict arose two months ago when a herd of goats owned by some Tapuach settlers temporarily disappeared. Settlers, armed with sticks came into the village in groups, and began hitting villagers. They accused people from Jamma’in of stealing some of their goats. Later the people of Jamma’in heard that the goats had been found somewhere else.
A third problem concerns an official attempt at dispossessing by force farm land—situated near Tapuach, about 400-500 meters away—which belongs to a Jamma’in family. One of the farmers found a paper tacked to a tree in his grove. It was a warning from the Israeli Civil Administration that he had to uproot his olive trees from that plot within 1 month. If he did not do that, the Israeli authorities would come and uproot them, and take the trees; moreover, the farmer would have to pay Israel for this work. However, the farmer has documents proving he owns the land, so he took the case to court, and is now waiting for a just legal verdict.
Mobility: The people of Jamma’in go to Salfit, a small city, or to Nablus, a large city, for various important services not available in their village. They can travel to Salfit by car on the road that goes past Tapuach Junction, but they are forbidden to go on foot on that road. If they are walking to take a public bus to Salfit they must make a detour by crossing the fields on a path just for Palestinians. Or they can take the long way through Kifl Harith. Both ways take longer.
Nablus, with six or seven hospitals, offers them medical services they lack. Their village health clinic operates only two days a week and offers limited medical help. Two of the hospitals are free for those who have medical insurance. Of course, those who do not have this insurance have to pay for medical services, which are very expensive. Not many can afford this.
The cities also offer markets for agricultural produce, possibilities for trade and possibilities for employment, both in the public and the private sector. In Nablus there is a university and also banks. Most of the Palestinian women and girls study at universities. They work as teachers and secretaries, but they are also doctors, engineers and computer operators. This sounds very optimistic. But the truth is that not only is the number of men who have permits to work in Israel is a small percentage, but that altogether there is a serious problem of unemployment for all Palestinians.
WATER and ELECTRICITY: The water comes from Mekorot through the Palestinian Authority. An NGO in the USA, Anera, has taken on the project to build a joint water storage facility and lay the pipes for both Jamma’in and Zeita. The work is still going on. The electricity comes from Israel and is usually sufficient. In the summer months when air conditioners are on they sometimes have shortages.
Most of the time we talked with N. but she had a meeting with some women to attend and left before we had finished. We also spoke with the Council Head who had arrived in the meantime. As we left we saw N. in another room and we all hugged and said goodbye as good friends do.
Urif: We spoke with M. the Council Head, who is also a teacher at the boys’ High School. Urif is a small village of 5,000 people, mostly farmers. A few men have permits to work in Israel.
The Olive Harvest: Answering our first question whether there were problems during the olive harvest, M. told us how Yitzhar settlers reacted aggressively against farmers harvesting olives on their lands on the slopes of the hills bordering the settlement. On the first harvest day, they did not molest them. But the next day, many settlers from Yitzhar came from all sides throwing stones at the harvesters to chase them out of their groves. The farmers resisted. It was the army, which arrived at 11:30, that succeeded in chasing and dispossessing these unfortunate farmers out of their own land by firing tear gas at them.
Two or three months ago, before the harvest, many olive trees were set on fire at night. (We were not told exactly how many trees were burnt.) It was not the first time this has happened. They did not have any help from volunteers. Villagers were prevented from trying to put out the fire.
EDUCATION: Yitzhar is built along a ridge overlooking Urif, which is in the valley. The boys’ High School, attended by 230 pupils, ages 14-18, is the last building in the village, facing the ridge with the settlement above. The other schools in the village, for the younger grades, are in better places and don’t suffer the same problems as the boys’ high school. The girls’ school is farther away and within the village.
This school year, during a period of about 40 days, settlers came down 5 times throwing stones and breaking the school windows. This happened during lessons, and the school had to send the pupils home through a back way to protect them. Both keeping the children at school and sending them home are real dangers. There are psychologists in the village who speak regularly with the children, to help them cope with their traumas.
There is a wall and a fence around the school, but the building is three stories tall. The windows of the second and third floors are exposed above the wall. The village would like to build a higher wall right to the top of the school and its roof. There is a wall around the roof of the building, but it is low. The village would like to build that wall high enough so that a guard could stand on the roof, unseen by the settlers, and give warning when the settlers begin to come down from the ridge. These projects would really allow the pupils and teachers to have quiet days of studies again. A legitimate demand. But the village has not been able to raise the money needed to carry out these important security projects. We do wish there were some way that we could help them.
Some parents have moved their children to schools in other villages, but this is very expensive: some schools are private and charge high tuition. The expense of travelling back and forth each day is also high. Very few families can afford these expenses. On the other hand, the village understandably does not want to abandon the school building and move the boys to another building inside the village. There is the very real fear that if the building were empty, the settlers would take it over; this would give them a foot hold in the village.
Settlers and Soldiers: There are many other incidents about which the village has complained to the DCO. There is a large plot of land, in Area B, near Yitzhar, which the farmer wanted to plow, but settlers, who have automatic rifles given to them by the army, prevented him from plowing his own land. The farmer is still waiting for an answer to his complaint. Sometimes the settlers are accompanied by soldiers. A woman, whose house was being pelted by stones that were breaking the windows, put her young children into an inner room and went up on the roof of her house and was shouting for help. A soldier who was with the settlers aimed his rifle at the woman and commanded her to go home. In another incident soldiers shot rubber-coated bullets at children whom they claimed were throwing stones. The village complained and the police came to investigate. The police who came to investigate were accompanied by one of the same soldiers who had shot at the children. The soldier was hurrying the police and not allowing them to really investigate. One boy was killed by a bullet.
After we had talked with M. in the Council building, we drove with him to the area of the school. We saw the problematic area, the school and the nearby houses. We saw a yard with burnt farm equipment. One house with broken windows and doors was empty; no one could live there anymore.