Awarta, Beit Furik, Burin (Yitzhar), Huwwara, Za'tara (Tapuah), יום ב' 19.5.08, בוקר

Place:

'Awarta

Beit Furik

Za'tara (Tapuah)

Huwwara

Tags:

Observers:

Micky F., Moria P., Sna'it G. (reporting)

May-19-2008

Morning

Translation: Suzanne O.

The entrance to Marda is open and to Zeita closed.

Za'atra in both directions

7:00 a.m.

From the north: there are three reservists working quickly, efficiently and politely. The inspection of passengers from a full coach took not more than 7 - 10 minutes.

At the main junction there are two lanes which function quite quickly, there are about 12 - 14 cars at any time during our stay.

Beita is open.

Borin/Yitzhar Junction

7:25 a.m.

There is a mobile roadblock of an armoured car belonging to the military police: there are four soldiers and 11 cars, mostly taxis, carrying teachers and doctors on their way to work. All the cars had already crossed the Huwwara roadblock. There were no cars from the direction of Jit. The soldiers took all the documents from the cars at once. They inspected them very slowly, did not permit the people to come closer than 4 metres to the military vehicle, and sent them to the back if they did so.

When we got there people told us that they had already been waiting for 20 - 30 minutes which appeared to be reasonable seeing the pace of the inspection. The documents were returned to the passengers and drivers 35 minutes after our arrival. The telephone calls we made to every possible number illustrated that, at first, the Brigade denied that there was such a roadblock, and then, finally, at almost 9:00 a.m., we were informed that the roadblock had been removed; it is quite possible that it had been a ‘private incentive'.

One of the people said with bitter irony: "If there are no roadblocks there is no life, it's like water, like air".

After all the cars in the first round had left we told the soldiers our opinion of the pace of their inspections. The soldiers started to hold up cars again this time just from the direction of Huwwara. This time, until we left, they inspected the documents from each car individually.

The registration number of the military car is 6109183 and the regiment number is 322. We feel that a complaint should be lodged.

Beit Furiq

8:15 a.m.

We met the DCO representative on his way to Yitzhar roadblock. There is no queue of people, none of cars and there are no detainees info-icon .

The tea/coffee vendor has put up an awning and seats of stones which have been gathered from the area, particularly he has put up a woven awning of mint bordered by boulders and decorated with sandstone rocks, thistles and large mallow. "Even the mouth of a lion can be furnished". (Yehuda Amichai)

Awarta

8:45 a.m.

There aren't many cars and the soldiers have two lanes working, according to the direction with the longest queue. They work quickly and politely. There is a dog handler. We did not see the dog working.

Huwwara

9 - 10:15 a.m.

There is no dog handler. The x-ray machine is present. There are no detainees. Cars enter; the soldier is efficient and polite...

Cars leaving Nablus: the inspection lengthens to 10 - 12 minutes. While we were there the inspections stopped for some 20 minutes. One of the soldiers said that the guards were having breakfast. The queue for the exit lengthened considerably as a result.

Three vehicles were parked at the side of the road, the drivers said that they had been held up for two hours, their keys and I.D. cards taken away, as punishment for parking at the entrance to the car park which is forbidden. They were permitted to leave about 10 minutes after our arrival.

Pedestrian queue: the women and elderly cross reasonably quickly.

The other queue is very, very slow, at any time during our stay there were between 35 - 40 people. The crossing from the middle to the head of the queue takes over half an hour. At first glance two lanes are functioning but in one there is a female soldier, chatting pleasantly with her guard, and letting people through little by little. Requests, via the DCO representative, that she speed up did not help. Possibly it was my mistake (Sna'it) in that I crossed the white line a little and got a little closer to her position to request politely that she speed up her inspection, after standing outside for about 40 minutes measuring the crawling queue. In hindsight, I understand that a complaint was lodged about it, and I apologise.

Unequivocal help was given by MachsomWatch: we saved a turtle slowly crossing the road at Huwwara, near the bus stop, from being run over.

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)