History of Jayyous

Jayyous is located in the Qalqilya Governorate in the north western West Bank, near the
Israeli border and the Green Line (the 1949 armistice line between Israel and the West
Bank).
The area has been populated since prehistoric times, as attested to by the discovery of flint tools. Written records of almost continual habitation can be traced back to Roman times.
The town takes its name from the Al-Jayyusi (Jayyosi) Clan, a historically significant political and landowning family and has always been viewed as a command centre for the clan, effective leadership and local resistance, including successful campaigns against Napoleon’s invading forces.
Though relatively small in population, Jayyous plays a disproportionately important role in the context of water resources and agriculture in the region, its geographic location and proximity to the Green Line also holding strategic, economic, and political importance.
There are several reasons for this:
Jayyous has rich groundwater resources as it sits on top of the Western Aquifer Basin, the largest and most productive aquifer in the West Bank. This aquifer supplies a significant amount of freshwater, making the land around Jayyous especially fertile and agriculturally valuable, and provides water to both Palestinian and Israeli areas. Control of these wells has been contested, as they are vital for irrigation and drinking water.

The fertile agricultural land around Jayyous is ideal for growing olives, citrus fruits, and
vegetables. Its agriculture has historically been a major part of the economy. Sadly, much
of Jayyous’s land was cut off by the Israeli West Bank barrier/Apartheid wall in the early
2000s, placing fertile farmland, vital wells and water pumps on the “Israeli side” of the wall.
Farmers need special permits to access their land, but these are not always granted,
creating significant hardship for local farmers, directly affecting crop yields and therefore
local income and food supply. This has been a source of protests and international
attention, and Jayyous has become a symbol of the broader Palestinian struggle for water rights in the occupied West Bank. Israeli communities often receive consistent water supplies while Palestinian villages like Jayyous face restrictions and shortages. Jayyous has hosted international delegations and environmental activists, highlighting the environmental justice and human rights dimensions of water control in the region.
Jayyous is close to the key urban centres of Qalqilya and Tulkarem, which enhances its
economic and logistical relevance.
The presence of nearby Israeli settlements like TZufim has intensified territorial and access disputes, especially since parts of Jayyous land were used for settlement expansion.
Jayyous has been a centre for non-violent resistance to the occupation and Israeli West Bank barrier/Apartheid wall, drawing in international activists and NGOs. The village’s
struggle has led to legal petitions to the Israeli High Court, attracting the aforementioned international attention to Palestinian land rights issues.
Jayyous is a farming community and sits in an area directly affected by the Israeli Apartheid Wall and around 75 per cent of the village’s farming land is now on the other side of the wall. In order to get to their land the farmers need to use one of two gates manned by Israeli army or armed police. The gates are supposed to be open for three short periods a day, one hour each morning, afternoon and evening on average, but they are regularly kept closed.
In 2002, Jayyous became famous as being the first village to mount a non-violent campaign with Israeli and international participation against the construction of the apartheid wall and the expansion of settlements on its land. 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. 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 previously 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. Whilst the matter is awaiting legal review, 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 the Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem (ARIJ), Israel confiscated 753
dunums (one dunum is roughly equivalent to 1,000 square metre or about 1/4 of an acre) of land from Jayyous in order to construct the illegal Israeli settlement of Tzufim.