Azzun, Beit Iba, Mon 24.3.08, Afternoon
The building is no help against the suffocating feeling of the heat and dust from the quarry. Reserve soldiers are manning the checkpoint and the DCO representative said that he has no work because of the humane handling. We believe him but ask if all is so good how come all is so bad.
15.30 Beit Iba. The humanitarian lane is open but the turnstiles are closed. Behind them stand about 60 young men who are shouting and after about 5 minutes soldiers arrive to open them. The DCO representative comes to us to say that these are reserve soldiers and he has little to do as they are more sensitive then the regular soldiers. Their behavior is decent but the depressive atmosphere still prevails. Those going through are used to the routine: the magnometer is still squeaking; the usual strip and search; the coming out with shoelaces undone and belt in hand. Thus, each day and sometimes twice.
16.00 The military police do not allow the owner of a certain car to go through. The commander says that he can as he is from the quarry. One of those going past asks Yona why the checkpoint opens so late at 05.30. One of the reserve soldiers asks us who we are and when we say that we are against the occupation and the interior checkpoints he says in surprise "But all the terrorist attacks go out from here." He is interested in speaking to us but the commander makes a motion with his hand for him to desist.
17.00 The crossroads at are open. We pass Kedumim and near the pink house we can already see signs of building and also the sign of Shvut Amit at the side of the road which states "Continuing to build in the land of Israel." They forgot to add: “In the house which was stolen on the land which was stolen from the neighbors”. Azzun: A mound of dirt and a wall of stone blocks. An army car is next to the wall.
'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.
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Beit Iba
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A perimeter checkpoint west of the city of Nablus. Operated from 2001 to 2009 as one of the four permanent checkpoints closing on Nablus: Beit Furik and Awarta to the east and Hawara to the south. A pedestrian-only checkpoint, where MachsomWatch volunteers were present daily for several hours in the morning and afternoon to document the thousands of Palestinians waiting for hours in long queues with no shelter in the heat or rain, to leave the district city for anywhere else in the West Bank. From March 2009, as part of the easing of the Palestinian movement in the West Bank, it was abolished, without a trace, and without any adverse change in the security situation.
Jun-4-2014Beit-Iba checkpoint 22.04.04
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