‘Azzun ‘Atma, Tue 1.12.09, Afternoon
The upper checkpoint at 'Azzun 'Atma – lively traffic of residents of the village returning from work. Occasionally lines are created. When there is crowding, the soldiers man 2 check point in order to speed up the inspection. By the side of the checkpoint a man is standing who seems to have been detained. The soldiers are not at all happy to see us there and attempt to move us away from the checkpoint and to prevent us from photographing; thus, we were not able to figure out the reason behind the detention of the man. Not long after we arrived at the checkpoint, around 16:30, the man was released and went back to the village.
Before he went, Miki got his phone number and, in a conversation later on the same evening, he told Miki the following details: The detained man is the father of a 10 year old boy who has a malignent brain tumor. The boy is receiving chemotherapy. During the early morning hours, the boy got a high fever; his parents contacted the hospital and they were told to bring the boy in immediately. The father, mother and the boy arrived at the checkpoint at 7AM and a taxi was waiting on the other side to take them to the hospital. The female soldier who was at the checkpoint at that hour was busy with a telephone conversation. After waiting a while, the father approached the soldier and asked her to check them and allow them to continue their way to the hospital, since it was an emergency. In response, the three of them were detained at the checkpoint for 3 hours. After 3 hours, the soldiers at the checkpoint gave the mother and the boy permission to continue to the hospital. The father remained in detention the whole day. He was released, as we said, only a little after we arrived at the checkpoint. All together, he was detained for more than 9 hours. When he was asked by Miki why he didn't tell us all this while we were at the checkpoint, he answered that when they arrived at the checkpoint, the commander told him not to talk to us. It seems that the man also was worried about complaining or going to the press about this incident because he has a sick child at home and another delay like this could kill him.
'Azzun 'Atma
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'Azzun 'Atma
A Palestinian village of about 1,800 residents. The settlement of Sha'arei Tikva was established on its land adjacent to it, and the settlement of Oranit was established on its agricultural lands. By 2013, the separation fence had passed through the village and a checkpoint staffed by the army allowed the residents to cross from side to side. After building a massive wall surrounding the village and some of its agricultural lands, the residents went daily for five years to their lands that remained in the Seam Zone through the Oranit agricultural checkpoint (4). Since 2018 it has only opened during the olive harvest and the farmers have to pass daily at the Beit Amin / Abu Salman checkpoint (1447), about 3 kilometers north.From a report from March 24, 2021: "The farmers from Beit Amin and Azon Atma are happy that since February 21 the Oranit checkpoint .is going to be open 3 times a day, The farmers are really developing the place."
Report from July 14, 2024: "Ornit checkpoint is closed . The Beit Amin/Abu Salman agricultural checkpoint is closed (there is no contact with the military to check if it opens rarely), the Ezbat Jaloud checkpoint was opened once a day before the war.
Updated for July 2024
Apr-11-2019Azoun: The main entrance to village blocked now for several weeks
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