Jayyous
Wednesday September 8
Photo by Stella Carroll

Outside the village of Izbat at Tabib beside the road from Azzun the Qalqillya

“If the bulldozer comes it will come from that way,” Amid said pointing up the road to the west.
Eight white plastic chairs placed in a circle, a plastic stool in the middle holding several Arabic coffee cups. A table at one side holding a water jug, an Arabic coffee pitcher, some more cups and a tea pot. In front of the table on the ground is a small propane burner heating water for tea. An agila sits to one side waiting for the apple flavored tobacco to be lit. Light comes from street lights lining the highway across the road.
We sit between the road and the ruins of four stores, back and side walls still standing, the fronts demolished and open for all to see inside: a building supply store, a convenience store, an appliance store and an auto supply store. Most of their contents are scattered although some items remain on the shelves.
Soon after we arrived we were invited into the ruins of one of the shops to sit at a table and eat supper. Food from iftar in their homes has been brought in for us. Iftar is the meal eaten after sundown during Ramadan. After we’ve eaten we return to the circle of chairs. We drink Arabic coffee and play simple games with two young boys who sit with us.
Later the two young boys fall asleep on mats between where we sit and the bones of the wreaked stores. Men from the village come in twos and threes to sit for a while. We struggle to communicate. Mostly, however, they struggle to accommodate us with their limited English. They tell the stories of their struggles with the Israeli army and the settlers from a nearby settlement. Most of the homes in their village are under demolition orders to make room for an expanded settlement. Their newly built school is also under demolition orders. They have some coffee, smoke, thank us for being there and then go on their way.
And so we wait through the night. We wait for the possibility that soldiers will come by and question our presence or perhaps as precursors to the coming of settlers, whom the soldiers protect. We wait for the possibility that “settlers” will bring in a bulldozer to finish the demolition they began over two weeks ago. We wait with the shop owners. We wait through the night one day a week. They wait every night. And they also wait for days while the court moves slowly to decide their case. They wait for a favorable decision that will allow them to rebuild with financial help from the Palestinian Authority.
Their story is a little complicated to understand. It seems that the store keepers have been renting from the owner of the building for over 22 years. This Palestinian owner then decided to sell the building to some Israeli settlers. This decision to sell to Israelis is ideologically unacceptable to Palestinians. In areas under Palestinian Authority it is illegal. Also, the shop owners seem to understand that because they have been renting for so many years and are still keeping up all of their payments, rent and utilities, they are entitled to stay in the building. It is certainly not justice for the building owner to hire a bulldozer to demolish their shops while their goods are still in them. The building owner, on the other hand, seeks to make it possible to fulfill his sales contract with the Israeli settlers.
The shopkeepers have taken their case to court. Meanwhile the settlers, who now believe they are entitled to own the land, are threatening to forcefully evict the shop keepers who remain at their demolished shops night and day. The Palestinian shop keepers have requested a number of NGO international organizations to be a presence at the stores to protect them or modify the actions of the settlers. We, Ecumenical Accompaniers, are here to observe and report.
And so we wait throughout this Tuesday night until the dawn. We are tired. Yet we can hardly imagine how tired occupied Palestinians are who have waited 62 years, since 1948, to return to their land and homes. Even as the Israeli soldiers continue to support the taking of more land for expanding Israeli settlements and adding new settlements, the economically, politically, and militarily powerless Palestinians wait for justice.
The sun rises. One more night has passed and the bulldozers have not come. We pick up our packs, say “good by,” receive thanks from the sleepy villagers and climb into our taxi to return to Jayyous where breakfast awaits us. I wonder, “How many more days, weeks or years will it be before a rising sun shines on the justice awaiting the people of Izbat at Tabib?”
John Buttrick
Jayyous, Palestine

EAPPI-US and Global Ministries of the United Church of Christ and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) have sent me as an Ecumenical Accompanier serving the World Council of Churches’ Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI). The views contained herein are personal to me and do not necessarily reflect those of EAPPI-US and Global Ministries or the WCC.