‘Azzun, Imatin
9:30 Azzun – About 15 women arrive at the club for our activity. They enter smiling, glad to meet. One group works with Ruti who intends to teach them crochet. Her idea is to create patterns inspired by nature – colorful leaves and flowers in various combinations with boundless creativity and imagination. Most impressive is her ability to act upon the many ideas at hand. She has prepared special needles and materials for work. A second group is led by Dafna, knitting colored socks. This project was enthusiastically received in Nabi Eliyas, and is now ongoing in Azoun.
9:45 driving to Imatin. On our way we see an armored army vehicle parked near the gas station opposite Izbat Tabib.
10:00 Imatin. Nine women await me, we continue to practice verbs in the past tense and the verb ‘to be’. They find it difficult, the examples are from everyday life and so they practice and internalize the material. The atmosphere is pleasant and our hour passes quickly.
11:30 back at Azzun. Ruti painfully tells us the story of one of the women. Her 18-year old son, a trained mechanic, has not been able to find work and is now sitting idle at home. He tried to work in Israel in the past, but without the necessary permits, and was arrested. Despair and hopelessness gnaw at the family and they fear for his future.
'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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Imatin
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Imatin This village lies in the West Bank, 19 kilometers southwest of Nablus city and 23 kilometers east of the city of Qalqiliya. Its inhabitants' number 799, all members of four families from the neighboring village of Imatin. Far’ata is identified with the Biblical Far’atoun, and an archeological survey has identified findings on a timeline from the Second Iron Age until the days of the Ottoman Empire. After the Oslo Accords, the built-up area of the village was categorized as Area B, but 80% of its farmlands were classified as Area C. In 2002, settlers founded the outpost of Havat Gil’ad, which they claim is located on privately-owned land purchased by the Zar family. The Palestinians claim they own the land. The Civil Administration has issued demolition orders for all the structures in this outpost and they were declared illegal, but nothing was done about it. On February 4, 2018, the Israeli government unanimously ruled to regulate this outpost by defining it as a new settlement or by erecting a new settlement next to it. Beginning in 2012, the Palestinian Authority ruled to include Far’ata in the local council of Imatin, a larger community. For further information: http://vprofile.arij.org/qalqiliya/pdfs/vprofile/immatin_vp_en.pdf
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