Nablus

Summarry: Bet Furik - new team of very
negative soldiers, Huwwara-easy movement, Tapuach junction - a lot
of people checked with blue police present at Huwwara and Tapuach
junction.

Beit Furik - general description: This checkpoint is at the
junction of the road 557 leading to Itamar and Elon More and the
road going westbound to Azkar (Nablus) and eastbound to Beit Furik.
The checkpoint monitors movement of nearby villages: Beit Furik,
Salem, Dir Hatab, Beit Degin and Azmut. Except for Beit Furik which
is accessible by a proper, asphalt covered road, other villages
have to use a dirt road prepared by the army so that locals will
not use "only for Jews" 557 road. The movement of trucks
(with permits) is possible. Men between 16 and 35 years old need a
permit to pass. Some men claim they have not been in the city
(Nablus) for 3 years. The checkpoint opens around 6 a.m. and closes
at darkness. Humanitarian cases can pass during nighttime.

Our activity in Beit Furiq : We arrived at 8:20 a.m. and met around
40 people on the east side who told us that soldiers deny any
passage towards Nablus claiming that there is a closure there.
Later on, in Huwwara, we got an information that only Balata is
under closure. Soldiers did not want to make any inquiries about
people’s needs, they just shouted towards people from a very big
distance "irjaa" meaning "go back" in Arabic.
Our presence caused that soldiers approached us and the crowd, and
we started to negotiate with the soldiers. We witnessed a most
humiliating situation where soldiers started to "examine"
back problem of a man around 50, who claimed that he fell down and
a doctor from Beit Furik suggested that he go to Nablus to get an
X-ray examination. Soldiers played being doctors and than they
decided that this man healthy. At this point we were on speaking
terms with soldiers. We learned that one of them is from Ariel
settlement and another one, Eliran Ohaion, has a basic approach to
Palestinians as "all are terrorists and all are liars".
Other soldiers were completely dominated by those two. We called
the DCO and after 40 min very sensible major named Bisan arrived.
All the people who wanted to go to get medical treatment passed. A
big group of young men went back.

We left this checkpoint and arrived again at 10:15. The previous
situation was repeated. A big crowd of people wishing to go to
Nablus and soldiers shouting "irjaa" from a distance of
100 m. No body asked what those people needed. There was a woman
with a vaginal bleeding with a paper from the doctor from Beit
Furik stating that she needs to go to a hospital. Only because of
our shouting, a soldier approached and let this woman with her
husband pass. At this point, we stopped to be on a speaking terms
with soldiers-we communicated by shouting where soldiers and
specifically Eliran Ohaion , shouted that they protect us and
Israeli nation, our children probably do nothing, that we do not
understand situation, we want to manage the checkpoint passage and
that they will prevent any passage of people because of us. We
shouted that we will not discuss with them any political issues,
only demand that a child with a clear eye inflammation and doctor’s
paper will be allowed to pass. Our shouting resulted in a passage
of the child with the eye problem and additional few cases. We
could not reach the DCO anymore. We moved back and could observe
from a significant distance that some people passed. We called Ofer
(assistant to the area commander) and complained about the
soldiers’ behaviour. He was very attentive and promised to check
this issue.

Huwwara : The situation there was the best we ever saw. People
passed freely and local people said that the checkpoint is
excellent. The comparison between Beit Furik and Huwwara
checkpoints, 7 km apart, shows explicitly how much power soldiers
have monitoring checkpoints. People in both checkpoints went to the
same destination (Nablus) the movement in Beit Furik was very
difficult in Huwwara very easy.

We gathered some general information about this checkpoint. It acts
between 6a.m till 6:30 p.m. Merchandise cannot pass here, they are
diverted to nearby Awarta checkpoint. Many yellow cabs provide the
transportation from Huwwara to Tapuach Junction. From there people
need to take another vehicle in order to continue to their
destinations. We were told that till the last terrorist attack on a
Jerusalem bus, the direct bus went from Huwwara to Qalandya. We saw
this bus parking nearby with its permit on the front window signed
by Nahum Gabai (a coordinator of movement).

Tapuach Junction –there were a lot of people going in all
directions. All were checked, all had to change means of
transportation in order to continue their journey. We passed very
quickly without any checking.