'Awarta, Beit Furik, Burin (Yitzhar), Huwwara, Za'tara (Tapuah), Thu 30.7.09, Morning

Place:

'Awarta

Beit Furik

Za'tara (Tapuah)

Huwwara

Burin (Yitzhar)

Observers:

Esti V., and Nava A. reporting

Jul-30-2009

Morning

Translation: Suzanne O.

Today is a Jewish holiday - there are practically no settlers on the roads they are all in synagogue.

Sha'ar Shomron

6:30 a.m.

There is no inspection at all at the entrance to the territories.

The traffic on the roads is light; the entrance to Marda is open and to Zeita closed, as usual.

Za'atra/Tapuach Junction

6:50 a.m.

There are no soldiers at the western roadblock. A few cars queue from the direction of Huwwara. The officer directs taxis and buses to the car park all the time to check ID cards at the computer. He is surprised to see us. He has never met any of us. He is a resident of Kfar Adumim and is convinced that his roadblock is guarding the State of Israel, "because this is the State of Israel".

Taxi passengers tell us that in Nablus the talk is that from tomorrow (!) there will be no more inspections at this roadblock. On our way Ettie tries to find out from various people whether the rumour has any basis in fact until, in Awarta, Abu Rokon the DCO officer tells us unequivocally that it has not.

A Border Police vehicle lurks in the car park opposite Beita.

Yitzhar/Borin roadblocks

Deserted.

Huwwara

7:00 a.m.

There is a short queue of cars to leave the town.

A dog handler is present and soldiers direct cars to the side of the area for her to make a thorough inspection. The commander explains that this is because there have been warnings. We checked out the possibility of going into Nablus and he explained that last time the soldier should not have permitted us to enter the town. The orders are that until the middle of August Israeli Arabs are permitted to cross freely during the week. Jews wishing to cross must provide signed (by whom?) permits relieving the IDF of all responsibility for their safety.

There are some four soldiers in the whole of the huge area, including the one guarding the dog handler.

From time to time a soldier asks to see someone's documents and a queue of more than 20 vehicles builds up immediately.

A family from Klil tries to cross on foot and the soldiers turn them back, telling them to get into one of the cars. They explain to us that the army does not want to station forces here to guard and inspect pedestrians because of two or three Palestinians who choose to cross on foot in this heat.

Awarta

7:50 a.m.

There are no cars at the roadblock. We are delighted to meet Abu Rokon and talk to him about the situation.

At the entrance to the DCO offices.

8:00 a.m.

11 Palestinians sit in the shade of the shed waiting for 8:30 a.m. At least here it is not hot and they are not perspiring.

Beit Furiq

8:20 a.m.

There are two soldiers on one side and one on the other side, and they are all bored.

Awarta

8:30 a.m.

There is no queue.

Yitzhar/Borin roadblocks are empty.

In the town of Huwwara there is one Border Police vehicle and a second one is still opposite Beita.

At Za'atra there is a queue of 37 vehicles at the exit from Huwwara. The inspections are slow and the officer does not open an additional lane. According to him he is doing his utmost to ease the traffic.

We were not inspected at Sha'ar Shomron. We were delighted that because of the optional holiday Road 5 was also not busy or jammed.

Location Description

Checkpoint Beit Furik

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One of the three internal checkpoints that closed on the city of Nablus - Beit Furik to the east, Hawara to the south, Beit Iba to the west.
The checkpoint is located at the junction of Roads 557 (an apartheid road that was forbidden for Palestinians), leading to the Itamar and Alon Morea settlements and Road 5487. The checkpoint was established in 2001 for pedestrians and vehicles; The opening hours were short and the transition was slow and very problematic.

Allegedly, the checkpoint is intended to monitor the movement to and from Nablus of the residents of Beit Furik and Beit Dajan, being the only opening outside their villages.
Since May 2009 the checkpoint is open 24 hours a day, the military presence is limited, vehicles can pass through it without inspections, except for random inspections. (Updated April 2010)

Za'tara (Tapuah) Checkpoint

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Za'atara is an internal checkpoint in the heart of the West Bank, at the intersection of Road 60 and Road 505 (Trans-Samaria), east of the Tapuach settlement.
This checkpoint is the "border" marked by the IDF between the north and south of the West Bank, in accordance with the policy of separation between the two parts of the West Bank that has been in place since December 2005.

At the Za'atara checkpoint, there are separate routes for Israelis and Palestinians. In the route for Israelis, there are no inspections and the route for Palestinians inspects. The queue lengthens and shortens suits.

The checkpoint is open 24 hours a day. The checkpoint is partially staffed and the people who pass through it are checked at random.

Sep-28-2023

Shoshi Anbar

Za'atra (Tapuah Intersection). Signs

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Huwwara - the checkpoint and the township

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The Huwwara checkpoint is an internal checkpoint south of the city of Nablus, at the intersection of Roads 60 and 5077 (between the settlements of Bracha and Itamar). This checkpoint was one of the four permanent checkpoints info-icon that closed on Nablus (Beit Furik and Awarta checkpoints to the east and the Beit Iba checkpoint to the west). It was a pedestrian-only barrier. As MachsomWatch volunteers, we watched therre since 2001 two shifts a day - morning and noon, the thousands of Palestinians leaving Nablus and waiting for hours in queues to reach anywhere else in the West Bank, from the other side of the checkpoint the destination could only be reached by public transport.
In early June 2009, as part of the easing of Palestinian traffic in the West Bank, the checkpoint was opened to vehicular traffic. The passage today is free, but there is still a military presence in the guard tower and vehicle inspections are done from time to time.

On February 26, 2023, about 400 settlers attacked the town's residents for 5 hours and set fire to property, such as houses and cars. Disturbances occurred in response to a shooting of two Jewish residents of Har Bracha by a Palestinian Terrorist. The soldiers stationed in the town did not prevent the arson and rescued Palestinian families from their homes only after they were set on fire. No one was punished and Finance Minister Smotrich stated that "the State of Israel should wipe out Hawara." Left and center organizations organized solidarity demonstrations and support actions for the residents of Hawara.

Hawara continued to be in the headlines in all the months that followed: more pogroms by the settlers, attacks by Palestinians and a massive presence of the army in the town. It amounted to a de facto curfew of commerce and life in the center of the city. On October 5, 2023, MK Zvi established a Sukkah in the center of Hawara and hundreds of settlers backed the army blocked the main road and held prayers in the heart of the town all night and the next day. On Saturday, October 7, 23 The "Swords of Iron" war began with an attack by Hamas on settlements surrounding Gaza in the face of a poor presence of the IDF. Much criticism has been made of the withdrawal of military forces from the area surrounding Gaza and their placement in the West Bank, and in the Hawara and Samaria region in particular, as a shield for the settlers who were taking over and rioting.

On November 12, 2023, the first section of the Hawara bypass road intended for Israeli traffic only was opened. In this way, the settlers can bypass the road that goes through the center of Hawara, which is the main artery for traffic from the Nablus area to Ramallah and the south of the West Bank. For the construction of the road, the Civil Administration info-icon expropriated 406 dunams of private land belonging to Palestinians from the nearby villages. The settlers are not satisfied with this at the moment, and demand to also travel through Hawara itself in order to demonstrate presence and control.

(updated November 2023)

Feb-29-2024

Nina Seba

Huwara checkpoint - the gate is closed

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Burin (Yitzhar)

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Burin

This is a Palestinian village in the Nablus governorate, a little south of Nablus, on the main road passing through the West Bank. The settlements: Yitzhar and Har Bracha, settled in locations that surrounded the village, placed fences so it is cut off the main road.

There are around 4000 inhabitants. Most of them are engaged in agriculture and pasture, although many graduates of the two secondary schools continue to study at the university. Academic positions are hardly available, they find work as builderd, or leave for the Gulf countries.

The village lands were appropriated several times for the establishment of Israeli settlements and military bases, and as a result, Burin's land and water resources dwindled. lSince 1982, more than 2,000 dunams of village land have been declared "state land" and then transferred to Har Bracha settlement.

Over the past few years and more so since 2017, the villagers have been terrorized by the residents of Yitzhar and Har Bracha, the Givat Ronen outpost and others.
Despite the close proximity of soldiers to an IDF base close to one of the village's schools, residents are suffering from numerous stone-throwing events, vehicle and fire arson, also reported in the press.

In 2023, the prevention of the olive harvest in the village plot was more violent than ever. Soldiers and settlers walked with drawn weapons between the houses of the village and demanded that people stop harvesting in the village itself and in the private plots outside the village. The settlers from Yitzhar and Giv'at Roned raided the olive groves and stole crops. 300 olive trees belonging to the residents of Burin, near Yitzhar, were uprooted. The loss of livelihood from the olives causes long-term economic damage to the farmers' families, bringing them to the point of starvation.

(updated for November 2023)