'Awarta, Beit Furik, Huwwara, Za'tara (Tapuah), Wed 17.12.08, Morning

Place:

'Awarta

Beit Furik

Za'tara (Tapuah)

Huwwara

Tags:

Arbitrariness, e.g. an arbitrary decision

Observers:

Micky F., Ettie K., and Nurit V-L. (reporting)

Dec-17-2008

Morning

Translation: Suzanne O.

Summary: At Beit Furiq people cross freely (in part) with random checks. The market stalls in Huwwara have been thrown out.

7:10 a.m. Marda - the road is open. Zeita is closed as previously.

Za'atra/Tapuach

7:15 a.m.

It is not crowded: it's empty from the west; from the north there are 6 - 8 vehicles in the queue. A bus awaits the completion of its inspection in the car park.

Beit Furiq

7:30 a.m.

The car park is empty and deserted. The yellow barrier is open. At the roadblock two soldiers move around the vehicle lane. Those coming from the direction of Beit Furiq cross freely; they hardly slow down. From the direction of Nablus the traffic is slower and, within a few minutes, one of them is thoroughly inspected. As already noted the barrier within the roadblock is closed at 9:00 p.m., after that the guard in the look-out post must be called out.

We popped over to Beit Furiq town to find out how things are and how they feel. According to the mayor the situation is better than in the past. Up to now no problems have been raised. We advised him to publicize, in their own way, the DCO and our telephone numbers in case of problems or emergencies.

Awarta

8:05 a.m.

Two vehicles cross quite quickly with no inspection.

Huwwara

8:15 a.m.

A sad day

From afar we noticed that the car park is half empty. This is quite unusual compared to recent times. As soon as we entered we were surrounded by stallholders in the hope that we can help them. The order to close them down immediately and to throw them out of the roadblock had just been received. Border Control jeeps surround the stalls, soldiers and an officer get out of them, and the DCO officer, Abu Rukon, is also there. There is obvious frustration and emotion on everyone's face but they are behaving with relative restraint.

Yesterday they received permission to stay and today they are again being thrown out. There is no clear, consistent policy.

We did all that we could, talking to Abu Rukon, Zaharan's replacement, as the officer responsible for the crossings and also contacted Zaharan (who is now the Operations Officer). We stressed that the 'café' at Za'atra/Tapuach Junction for the settlers and the soldiers is continuing to expand, and no one says a word, while here the stall holders are being evicted when this is their paltry living and it's being taken away from them. We demanded that they check and compare! We reminded them that Huwwara roadblock is a 'central station' and as long as this is the case, i.e.: somewhere that hundreds of thousands of people pass through, it is natural that minimal commerce develops for the good of the people. It is a humanitarian issue. We also noted that we have been observing the disappearance of facilities for the Palestinians at the roadblock and nothing has been done about it. Of course the soldiers observed that they also have no facilities here, and that those that were here were unacceptable. Really!

We responded to the argument that the stalls have to be closed down because neither the Israeli nor the Palestinian DCO's have provided them with health certificates by asking whether the stall at Za'atra has a certificate?! Does it also serve Palestinians?!

The situation was on the verge of violence all the time because the soldiers at first were unable to remove the iron chains. We did not leave because of the possibility of violence breaking out. The soldiers actually listened to us.

It was finally agreed that representation of the stall holders be made in the form of a letter, signed by all of them, to the DCO. Zaharan promised that the matter will be looked into again.

(We found out in the evening that the letter was not received yesterday because they were required to type it so that it should be a seemly, polite, approach to the ruler!!! We will deal with this too today.)

We left them to pass the copy of the letter to the Palestinian DCO too.

By 10:30 a.m., all the stalls were loaded onto vehicles but not before a threat was uttered: "If you are not out of here in 5 minutes, we'll throw you out". Only a newspaper stand was left and its owner managed to sell a few - until he too was sent away. Well, even intellectual nourishment is not appropriate in a Palestinian transport centre.

In the end the anger and frustration found a way out in an argument between them and drivers. A fist fight broke out which was stopped with the help of Palestinians and soldiers.

We took the telephone numbers of the representatives of the stall holders, those from the northern roadblock too, to be able to be in contact with them and promised to continue to help.

Micky had spoken to Mor, the MK Chaim Oron's secretary, by the time we got home and we spoke to Abu Rukon and Zaharan again too.

Al the time we were at the roadblock the numbers crossing were relatively few. We did not observe any problems. Neither were we removed from our observation point close to the checkpoint.

In the vehicle lane: relatively few vehicles entered Nablus neither being held up nor checked. Conversely, from the direction of Nablus, every car was inspected quite slowly and thoroughly.

Za'atra/Tapuach

11:00 a.m.

There are 4 vehicles from the north; there are no jams at all.

Location Description

Checkpoint Beit Furik

See all reports for this place

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

See all reports for this place

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

View the full album

Huwwara - the checkpoint and the township

See all reports for this place

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

View the full album