'Awarta, 'Azzun, Burin (Yitzhar), Eliyahu Crossing, Habla, Mas'ha, Nabi Ilyas, Za'tara (Tapuah)

Place:

'Awarta

'Azzun

Burin (Yitzhar)

Eliyahu Crossing

Observers:

Fathiya Akfa and Riva Bacharah, driver: Ala’a; Translator: HannaK

Nov-3-2016

Afternoon

A quite routine report but the occupation is even more routine and ongoing …

14.00 Habla

The checkpoint is empty. It is noon time and especially is is the end of the olive picking season.

14.10 Eliyahu Gate

A bus which transports Palestinians who work in Israel, back and forth, is waiting alongside the checkpoint.

14.20 Nebi Iliyas, Azzun

There are no soldiers at the entrance. Opposite us rise the house of Moshe Zar! Not a pleasant sight…

14.25 Four military jeeps on their way westwards, also a police vehicle.

On our way we pass Shavey Shomron and Kedumim. Further on there is an enormous traffic jam, for a change not because of military reasons but owing to road works (That is to say settlement interests…)

14.50 Burin

Opposite the school at Burin there is a military post (a tower) manned by soldiers.

At Burin we heard from a woman who lives there, that they have an olive grove near the pond which they went to harvest, two days ago, in coordination with the army. The settlers came down from the hills and tried to shy them away!!! They contacted the Army. The army did indeed arrive and watched over them but pressed them to finish quickly. They did not manage to completely finish the harvest “for the glory of the State of Israel….

15.00 Beit Furik

The tower is manned. Next to it the soldiers stop a private Palestinian vehicle. They check. For what reason? We look on. The soldiers are already consulting over 15 minutes about the vehicle and look at us from time to time (they probably wait for an answer from the DCO). Later a military jeep arrived, probably the military command. We watch. The Palestinians are still sitting in their car. The Palestinians car has been released!!! They drive on.

15.35 Awarta beneath Itamar

We talked with a chance man we met in Awarta and as much as he knew there were no harassments from the Itamar people during the olive picking. Could the municipality have approached the army? It seems the municipality had approached the army and for the first time there was a military accompaniment.

16.10 Za’atra intersection

The intersection is very packed. There are soldiers on both tracks. There is a new post opposite the old one. In the tower there are 2 soldiers. This time there were no settlers at the bus station.

Ariel intersection

There are many Palestinians who return from their work in Israel. Near the parking lot where they leave their cars in the morning.

Mas'ha intersection

At the bus station there are two soldier and to the left, a bit further on, there are other soldiers.

end

Location Description

'Azzun

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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.

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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Eliyahu Crossing

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This checkpoint, also known as the Fruit Crossing, is one of the main checkpoints between Israel and the West Bank.
It is located on Route 55 between Alfei Menashe and the turn to Qalqilya and Tzufin, more than 4 km east of the Green Line, in the separation fence, which separates Qalqilya from its lands to the south, thus leaving Alfei Menashe West of the fence - the Seam Zone.
This checkpoint, a few kilometers across the Green Line, is intended for "Israeli settlement in the West Bank and the population of the Seam Zone."
It is managed by a civil company. Palestinians with a special permit for their lands in the seam area info-icon are also allowed to pass through it, on foot, and sometimes by car.

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)

Masha

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Hani's home enclaved between the separaion wall and the fence of Elkana settlement

Mas'ha

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A village in the Salfit district. In 1983, the settlement of Sha'arei Tikva and Etz Efraim were established south of the village and in 1985, the Oranit settlement was established west of the village. The separation barrier that creates the enclave of the settlements of Etz Efraim Elkana and Sha'arei Tikva, which were built on Mlas'ha's land, cut it off from the north-neighboring village of Sanniriya and from the main road to the north. The two agricultural checkpoints (1634 and 1549) for the passage to 5,000 dunams in the seamline zone are seasonal. Farmers complain that the army does not allow them to pass a water pipe needed for irrigation and especially for pest control spraying. "Hani's House" is a family house close to Elkana and separated from his village by a wall.