‘Azzun, ‘Azzun ‘Atma, Eliyahu Crossing, Falamiya, Habla, Kufr Jammal, Mon 2.7.12, Morning
Comment 1: “Is it normal for a person to have to be inspected at a checkpoint and pass through a fence in order to go from his village to his ancestral lands…? That’s what a Palestinian asked after leaving his car by the side of the road to the Falamya checkpoint and crossing on foot to his lands.
Comment 2: The Eliyahu checkpoint (crossing) has become a park, blooming with shrubs, trees and flowers; paved paths, bordered by carpets of bright green artificial grass and mosaic pavements in the Spanish Gaudi style. This “park” is like the Chanukkah candles, only to look at, not to be used. It’s at the entrance on the Israeli side. (Photos of this artistic creation to follow).
I can’t think of a heading for my two comments, but I feel they’re connected…
06:05 'Azzun 'Atma
Laborers who’ve already gone through the checkpoint sit outside eating breakfast. They say “the checkpoint is normal today.” About 70 people wait to cross, but more keep arriving so the line doesn’t get any shorter.
Twenty people at a time are let through the revolving gate and then wait for document inspection. Both computers are working and inspection is quick. The gate people must go through to collect their belongings is also open; people enter freely with no delays. (which just shows how unnecessary it is).
People coming through are much calmer. Their long, hard day may begin slightly less stressed.
06:35 A man who got on line when we arrived comes through 30 minutes later.
The line has shortened, apparently because the crossing is quicker and calmer. We see that it’s possible.
06:40 Tamar gate
More Palestinians are crossing here, which may relieve some of the pressure at the main gate.
07:02 Habla
The soldiers are here already, but haven’t begun letting people cross.
L., the MP who ensures that justice prevails, opens the gate and orders inspections to begin.
07:05 The first five enter and come out 2.5 minutes later. The second five waiting at the forward revolving gate have already entered.
The elderly guard from the plant nurseries who arrived with his donkey cart when we did waits patiently for his “turn.”
One of the soldiers asks why we’re not doing anything about the donkey who’s tied inhumanely with a rope that’s too short. When I comment that this isn’t the only inhumane thing here the second soldier changes the topic in an attempt at humor. It’s the turn of the elderly guard to enter for a quick inspection, including a rapid check of his cart and belongings, and he goes through.
26 people crossed in twelve minutes. The line doesn’t get shorter because additional people keep joining it.
07:35 Eliyahu checkpoint
I already commented on the “beauty” of the entrance.
No Palestinians wait to enter.
Three cars are being inspected, doors open, dogs in action. A car with Israeli plates exits the inspection area toward Israel.
07:50 Heavy road-paving equipment is parked at the entrance to 'Azzun.
We drive to the Falamya agricultural gate that’s open all day for farmers with permits to reach their land on the other side of the separation fence.
08:00 We meet a farmer who has a crossing permit for himself but not for his car, which he leaves in the shade of a tree and goes through on foot to his land. He asks whether we’ve heard of any other country in the world where such things happen…
A few tractors show up, carrying riders. All are inspected and go through. One tractor drives on the security road and turns left to the fields far off toward Kochav Yair.
08:30 We drive to Kafr Jimal, to find out what the situation is.
Z., who owns the grocery, and his wife welcome us happily. They’ve renovated the grocery and installed a new air conditioner.
They talk about the situation, hope things will be quiet and that everyone will be able to make a living.
The additional agricultural gate that was examined by the DCO head wasn’t approved, but they (and we) were promised that it would open for the olive harvest and the plowing. We’ll follow up on that promise.
The village is quiet. It has good relations with Sla’it, the nearby settlement, which doesn’t harass them. Many of the villagers work in the factories in Sla’it, and farmers also go through the gate near the settlement without interference to work their lands. The army doesn’t come to the village, nor to Jayyus nearby.
09:30 An armored vehicle is by the roadside outside of 'Azzun on our way back.
'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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'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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Eliyahu CP (109) / Crossing
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Eliyahu CP (109) / Crossing 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 Zufin, 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 are also allowed to pass through it, on foot, and sometimes by car.
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Falamiya
See all reports for this placeHabla
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Habla CP (1393)
The Habla checkpoint (1393) was established on the lands of the residents of Qalqilya, on the short road that
connected it for centuries to the nearby town of Habla. The separation barrier intersects this road twice and cut off the residents of Qalqilya from their lands in the seam zone.(between the fence and the green line).
There is a passage under Road 55 that connects Qalqilya to the sabotage This agricultural barrier is used by the farmers and nursery owners established along Road 55 from the Green Line and on both sides of the kurkar road leading to the checkpoint.
This agricultural checkpoint serves the residents of Arab a-Ramadin al-Janoubi (detached from the West Bank), who pass through it to the West Bank and back to their homes. The opening hours (3 times a day) of this agricultural checkpoint are longer than usual, about an hour (recently shortened to 45 minutes), and are coordinated with the transportation hours of a-Ramadin children studying in the occupied in the West Bank.
Nina SebaAug-18-2025Habla: The gate is in the process of closing
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Kufr Jammal
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Kufr Jammal This village, rising about 200 meters over sea level, is located about 14 kilometers south of Tul Karm town and about 17 kilometers from the Mediterranean Sea. The families living there since the mid-18th century number about 3,000 persons at present. The village has lost thousands of dunams of its northern and western lands due to the construction of the Separation Barrier, leaving the lands themselves behind the barrier. After the Israeli Supreme Court ruling in 2011, the barrier was moved to the west and many farmlands were returned to their owners. It is a quiet village, its relations with the nearby settler-colony of Sal’it are favorable, and many of the villagers work in the colony’s industrial plants. Farmers cross the agricultural checkpoint close to this settler-colony in order to tend their fields unhampered. However, there are numerous acts of harassment and disorder taking place when the village farmers cross the other agricultural checkpoints: gates do not open at hours suitable to the farmers’ needs, and for a short period of time only; the Civil Administration usually prevents all kinds of crops except olives; tractors and other farm equipment are forbidden entry; only a single permit is issued per family, and occasionally such permits are confiscated and their re-issue is delayed – the common excuse is usually “security reasons”. How do the villagers make their living? Holders of work permits inside Israel travel at 3 a.m. to Eyal Checkpoint near Qalqiliya town in order to make it on time to their workplace at Sal’it (close to their village) and elsewhere. Owners of vegetable patches who hold permits are allowed to reach their fields beyond the Separation Barrier through the distant Falamiya Checkpoint. Importantly, fields returned to the village show amazing improvement intending, irrigation and farming variety – and instead of the neglected olive tree groves that were accessible only to holders of transit permits through agricultural checkpoints usually closed, farming has now flourished. (updated Jan 2021)
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