Dear friend,

In the middle of the ceasefire, Israel's Zufin settlement is going to build 1500 new houses on the Palestinian village of Jayyous's farmland.

Already, hundreds of Jayyous’s olive trees have been uprooted, and farmers have been unable to get to their land because it’s been blocked off by the Wall. Read the NY Times feature about Jayyous here. 

Even though Israel has redrawn the path for the Wall, it still cuts the West Bank into fragments, cutting people off from their land, from neighboring villages and cities, and from the rest of the West Bank. See the new path of the Wall here.

Two months ago, Senator Lincoln Chafee wrote a letter to the State Department objecting to Israel's confiscation of Jayyous's land. Recently, the State Department replied, but with no intention of changing the grave situation for the people of Jayyous.

The reply said, among other things, that the Israeli government intended to stop uprooting olive trees while the situation was to be investigated, but failed to mention that all the olive trees on the land in question have already been uprooted. Observers in the area saw the trees replanted in West Jerusalem, bearing backhoe and chain marks.

Help the people of Jayyous reclaim their land by sending a letter to your elected representatives, asking them to investigate the situation in Jayyous and to halt Zufin’s expansion. We'll CC your letter to Caterpillar CEO Jim Owens, whose company's bulldozers are uprooting Jayyous's trees.

Subject: Help the village of Jayyous save its land

Dear [decision maker name automatically inserted here],

I'm writing to ask that you support Senator Lincoln Chafee's efforts to investigate the expropriation of the West Bank village of Jayyous's land. Last winter, Israel's Wall was built right through the Jayyous's land. The Wall, whose path was declared illegal by the International Court of Justice, has cut the people of Jayyous off almost completely from their farms. Now, the nearby Israel settlement of Zufin is expanding on to Jayyous's farmland. Hundreds of olive trees have already been uprooted.

The New York Times recently wrote a feature story about the situation in Jayyous, which you can read here at http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/29/international/middleeast/29mideast.html

Senator Lincoln Chafee from Rhode Island has already sent a letter to Assistant Secretary of State William Burns, objecting to what's happening to Jayyous and asking for an explanation. I'm writing to ask you to do the same. Please contact William Burns' office and ask for a full investigation into the matter and a halt to Zufin's illegal expansion.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]

cc:
Jim Owens