Location Description

'Azzun

Azoun (updated February 2019)

A Palestinian town situated in Area B (under civil Palestinian control and Israeli security control),

on road 5 between Nablus and Qalqiliya, east of Nabi Elias village. The inhabitants are allowed to construct and improve infrastructures. The Separation Fence has confiscated lands belonging to the town's people. In 2018 olive tree groves owned by one of its inhabitants were confiscated for the sake of paving a road to bypass Nabi Elias. Azoun population numbers 13,000, its economic state dire. Its infrastructures are poor, neglect and poverty rampant. In the meantime, the town council has completed paving an internal road for the inhabitants' welfare.

Because of its proximity to the Jewish settler-colony of Karnei Shomron and its outposts, the town suffers the intense presence of the Israeli army, especially at nighttime: soldiers enter homes, arrest suspects, trash the house and sometimes ruin it, as they do in numerous places in the West Bank. At times a checkpoint closes the entrance to the town, so no one can come in or get out.

Imatin/Far'ata

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Imatin -

Far'ata - This village lies in the West Bank, 19 kilometers southwest of Nablus city and 23 kilometers east of the city of Qalqiliya. Its inhabitants' number 799, all members of four families from the neighboring village of Imatin. Far’ata is identified with the Biblical Far’atoun, and an archeological survey has identified findings on a timeline from the Second Iron Age until the days of the Ottoman Empire.

After the Oslo Accords, the built-up area of the village was categorized as Area B, but 80% of its farmlands were classified as Area C.

In 2002, settlers founded the outpost of Havat Gil’ad, which they claim is located on privately-owned land purchased by the Zar family. The Palestinians claim they own the land. The Civil Administration info-icon has issued demolition orders for all the structures in this outpost and they were declared illegal, but nothing was done about it. On February 4, 2018, the Israeli government unanimously ruled to regulate this outpost by defining it as a new settlement or by erecting a new settlement next to it.

Beginning in 2012, the Palestinian Authority ruled to include Far’ata in the local council of Imatin, a larger community.

For further information: http://vprofile.arij.org/qalqiliya/pdfs/vprofile/immatin_vp_en.pdf

'Azzun, Habla, Imatin