Jayyous Thursday, September 23
Soldiers in Jayyous
photos by John Buttrick

Anwar’s father leaps up from his mat against the wall to our left. In three quick strides he crosses in front of us to a bedroom door beside us on our right. He is speaking mostly Arabic but his excitement, gestures and his tone communicate almost as clearly as if he was using English. We sit on the mat facing the entrance from the outside and a small kitchen area.
He runs up to the entry door, demonstrating Israeli soldiers crashing through without even knocking. It’s two in the morning. He shows us how the soldiers burst in and pushed down his younger son who had been awakened by the noise and was trying to get up from his mat on the floor. He pantomimes striking him and holding him down. Then in a flash he sprints from one bedroom door to the other at the far corners of the main room. Watching him, we can see the soldiers finding family members in one of the rooms and confining them there. Then, practically leaping over us, he takes us to the other room where the soldiers found his other son, twenty four year old Anwar. He shows us how they grabbed him, handcuffed him and blindfolded him. Then dashing from room to room, he shows us how the soldiers searched the house. Finally, he opens the door to the outside and we see, through his gestures, the soldiers leading his son out of the house. Closing the door he turns to us, speaks some last words in Arabic and shrugs. His eyes are sad. The energy has drained out of him. He slumps back onto his mat against the wall. The soldiers had refused to say why they were taking Anwar away or where they were taking him.

While the ten Israeli soldiers search the tiny space of Anwar’s second floor home that consists of a kitchen area at the front of the main room and two bedrooms; there is no furniture, only mats for sitting and sleeping; other soldiers have surrounded the block around the house. Villagers cautiously watch from the shadows of alleyways and rooftops. They witness the soldiers bringing Anwar out of his house, putting him into one of their vehicles and driving him away.

As this was happening, across the village a similar scene was being acted out. Two houses up from where we live, soldiers entered a neighbor’s house preceded by a flash bomb thrown into the courtyard. The sound awoke our EA colleague who soon learned that a young man living there had been taken away leaving the home trashed after an extended search.

Jamal, Anwar’s uncle, joined us to fill in the details of the story in English. Jamal has spent several years working in the United States. His English is good. He also has learned Hebrew as well as his native Arabic. He enjoys reading books in English and has a collection of philosophy, sociology, history and political commentary as well as several translations of the Bible. He and his family are Muslim. He was in the United States on 9/11. Soon after he was profiled and pick up under the Homeland Security Patriot Act and held for over two years before being deported without charges or a trial.

“Anwar is well liked in Jayyous,” Jamal tells us. “He is in his last semester at the University where he is studying physical education. He is also on the Jayyous volleyball team.” Volleyball is big in Jayyous. At the present time they have qualified to play in the regional championships. The whole village of men and boys will turn out to view this final game, from which Anwar will probably be absent. At this time it is not known where he is being held, how long he will be detained and whether or not he will be charged with anything.


During out two months stay here in Jayyous this story has been repeated at least 25 times. Most of the boys taken from Jayyous and the neighboring village of Azzun, have been under 16, many only 14 years old. Most are released after a few days. Some are charged and held for sentencing. The usual charge is throwing stones, either at soldiers when they enter a village or at Israeli settlers as they travel in cars on the highway passed the village. Convictions carry a fine and several months in prison.

Most incursions by the Israeli army come late at night, but not all. Last week we witnessed a daytime drive through by two army vehicles. Children chased after the vehicles, at a distance, getting directions from others who watched from the rooftops. The children were very excited while at the same time cautious about getting too close. Some could hardly move because they were carrying so many stones. However, they remained too far away to throw them at the soldiers’ vehicles. At one point the soldiers got out of their vehicle to question a man walking on the street. They checked his ID and asked him a long series of questions. A small group of people stood watching nearby. After about a half an hour the soldiers’ vehicles drove away. Other than the children, most of the villagers remained calm and went about their business. As we talked with different people they would say to us, “what can we do?”

There has been another variety of army incursion into our village. Last night five or more Palestinian Authority vehicles came into Jayyous with forty or fifty Palestinian soldiers. This presence brought out the village people to watch: men, women and children. As we walked the main street, villagers frequently came up to us to explain that these were Palestinian soldiers, not Israeli. “It is OK,” they would say. The soldiers were entering each store in the village, apparently looking for products made or raised in Israeli settlements. They are illegal to sell in the Palestinian territories.
The mood was generally festive. People gathered in group conversation and some moved in and out of the stores, making purchases even as the soldiers, in full gear with automatic weapons, examined the merchandise. Children played soldier games as they followed the soldiers up the street, eating candy recently purchased. The people who were the most tense were some of the shopkeepers. A few had closed and locked up before the soldiers reach their stores. One was quickly loading its produce into a truck, apparently to hide it from the searching soldiers. The soldiers remained in the village for over an hour and a half, driving and walking up and down the shop-lined streets. Soon the village was quiet, as if nothing unusual had happened.

The people of Jayyous, and many other villages, find themselves in the middle between two armies seeking to assert their power and authority. As one young man told us over evening coffee in our courtyard, “both armies and both governments are filled with corruption. The people have not chosen them to be their leaders. What can we do? Seeking ways to resist is the only answer. One of the ways to resist is to tell the stories of injustice experienced.” Anwar’s father has entrusted us with Anwar’s story. What else can we do but pass it on.