Awarta, Beit Furik, Huwwara, Za'tara (Tapuah), Mon 12.5.08, Afternoon - machsomwatch
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Awarta, Beit Furik, Huwwara, Za’tara (Tapuah), Mon 12.5.08, Afternoon

Observers: Macky S. Noah P.
May-12-2008
| Afternoon

Natanya translates.

13.15 Two armed guards in the shade of the 0live trees, They keep an eye on the work being done on the road.

Marda is open. Zeita-Jamaiem is closed.
On the road opposite the public works authority is busy putting up a new rail on the road.  

At Za'tara
From the west there are no cars waiting. From the north there are 17 and two checking areas. No detainees. When we drove back there were 9 cars.
 

13.40 Beit Furik.
At the upper car park we are met with the traditional cry of where is Micky. There are taxis waiting some say for half an hour, some for an hour. At the checkpoint itself the soldiers take no notice of us and check the cars coming from Nablus. We asked the commander about the car park and the taxi drivers' complains. He smiles and says that 20 minutes ago he himself checked and there had been no cars there. The line at the upper parking area continues to grow and till 14.00 only 10 cars had entered Nablus during which time cars leaving Nablus are allowed to pass too. Almost no pedestrians. Those who do pass say to us "well done". 

14.10 Awarta.
The work on the Palestinian side of the road slows  down the trucks who wish to exit Nablus.  There were about 10.  A man comes to us and asks us for clothes for his children of which he has 14. He is waiting for work back to back of which there is none and cannot make a living.


14.25 Huwwara.
2 checking areas. Today is hot and there is no dog …..they cannot work in such heat. The checkpoint is well handled and we are told that the usual lines of men pass in 10 minutes and in the humanitarian people pass the whole time.

14.40 4 soldiers check a taxi and after that they disperse and the checking stops. A. from the DCO says that there are no cars waiting from Nablus. E. the commander completely ignores us.  I tried to ask why only two checking posts are working but he demonstratively ignores our presence.

15.00 we hear shouts and next to the isolation we see E. with his back to us and a Palestinian facing us who is pressed to the cement wall saying "I did not give you any problems." 
E. raises handcuffs which are in his hands and hits the man on the hand with them. The man 's hands are red. The DCO  speaks to the man. A. from the DCO moves from his place to speak to H. on the phone and then E. kicks the man again.  The man says in a normal voice that is not begging nor retreating. "Do not do that, do not do that again." After some words the three go into the isolations. We see a red slogan which says "Until when>" A. comes out and we hear groans of pain. It seems E. has continued beating the man….this time with none seeing. We can only hear. E. comes out of the isolation and locks it. Then he goes in again and speaks with the man behind locked doors. Now E. goes to the water tank, fills two bottles and takes it to the soldiers. Truly he is a good commander who cares about his men.

I go to the side of the isolation taking advantage of his disappearance and ask the man for his details and what happened.

"My name is M. and I was in the line for checking.I am a taxi driver and another driver went forward in my place and so I went forward to say that it was my turn. E. came and told me to go to the "jorra" and to give him the keys which I said were in the car. Then he pushed and hit me and I want to make a complaint".

We left the place at 16:00.00 with the phone number of the man and the DCO said they would let me know of further developments.
At 18.40 I received the good news that M. had been freed and allowed to return home.

At the parking lot Abad who has the kiosk of toys on the traffic lane asked what had happened to E. and why he demanded that he remove his kiosk when only two months ago he himself had given him permission to do so.
  
M. , the Palestinian driver who had been beaten by E. asked to speak to someone who speaks Arabic.
I asked Fathia who today was at the Huwwara shift to do so and he met her today together with Z. who has replaced E. Here is the story.

M. is a taxi driver and it was his turn to take passengers. Another driver tried to take the passengers from him. He went to the man and asked him to move because he was first in line. E.came up and told both of them to get away. M. explained to him what had happened and E. asked for his ID and said to him that he was under arrest. When he took him to the "jorra" he wanted to handcuff him and M. refused saying it was enough.  The rest we saw, Macky, I and the DCO A. The situation at the moment is that M. refused to give him the number of his ID and decided not to make a complain. He says. I am a driver and have to go through the checkpoint and do not want problems with the soldiers.


 


 


 

  • 'Awarta

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    • Awarta, an internal checkpoint in the heart of the West Bank, is located east of the Hawara checkpoint, at the junction of Roads 555 (which was forbidden for Palestinian traffic in this area) and the entrance road to Nablus. It was one of the four checkpoints that surrounded Nablus until 2009. We used to watch it at Huwwara shifts because it was the only one where goods could be transferred to and from Nablus, using the back-to-back method. It was operated by the army, from 06:00 to 20:00. Until 2009.
      Awarta: a long line of cars
      Ronit Dahan-Ramati
      May-12-2008
      Awarta: a long line of cars
  • Beit Furik checkpoint

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    • One of the three internal checkpoints that closed on the city of Nablus - Beit Furik to the east, Hawara to the south, Beit Iba to the west. The checkpoint is located at the junction of Roads 557 (an apartheid road that was forbidden for Palestinians), leading to the Itamar and Alon Morea settlements and Road 5487. The checkpoint was established in 2001 for pedestrians and vehicles; The opening hours were short and the transition was slow and very problematic.
      Allegedly, the checkpoint is intended to monitor the movement to and from Nablus of the residents of Beit Furik and Beit Dajan, being the only opening outside their villages. Since May 2009 the checkpoint is open 24 hours a day, the military presence is limited, vehicles can pass through it without inspections, except for random inspections. (Updated April 2010)
  • Huwwara

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    • The Huwwara checkpoint is an internal checkpoint south of the city of Nablus, at the intersection of Roads 60 and 5077 (between the settlements of Bracha and Itamar). This checkpoint was one of the four permanent checkpoints that closed on Nablus (Beit Furik and Awarta checkpoints to the east and the Beit Iba checkpoint to the west). It was a pedestrian-only barrier. As MachsomWatch volunteers, we watched therre  since 2001  two shifts a day -  morning and noon, the thousands of Palestinians leaving Nablus and waiting for hours in queues to reach anywhere else in the West Bank, from the other side of the checkpoint the destination could only be reached by public transport. In early June 2009, as part of the easing of Palestinian traffic in the West Bank, the checkpoint was opened to vehicular traffic. The passage was free, with occasional military presence in the guard tower.  Also, there were vehicle inspections from time to time. Since the massacre on 7.10.2023, the checkpoint has been closed to Palestinians.

      On February 26, 2023, about 400 settlers attacked the town's residents for 5 hours and set fire to property, such as houses and cars. Disturbances occurred in response to a shooting of two Jewish residents of Har Bracha by a Palestinian Terrorist. The soldiers stationed in the town did not prevent the arson and rescued Palestinian families from their homes only after they were set on fire. No one was punished and Finance Minister Smotrich stated that "the State of Israel should wipe out Hawara." Left and center organizations organized solidarity demonstrations and support actions for the residents of Hawara.

      Hawara continued to be in the headlines in all the months that followed: more pogroms by the settlers, attacks by Palestinians and  a massive presence of the army in the town. It amounted to a de facto curfew of commerce and life in the center of the city. On October 5, 2023, MK Zvi established a Sukkah in the center of Hawara and hundreds of settlers backed the army blocked the main road and held prayers in the heart of the town all night and the next day. On Saturday, October 7, 23 The  "Swords of Iron" war began with an attack by Hamas on settlements surrounding Gaza in the face of a poor presence of the IDF. Much criticism has been made of the withdrawal of military forces from the area surrounding Gaza and their placement in the West Bank, and in the Hawara and Samaria region in particular, as a shield for the settlers who were taking over and rioting.

      On November 12, 2023, the first section of the Hawara bypass road intended for Israeli traffic only was opened. In this way, the settlers can bypass the road that goes through the center of Hawara, which is the main artery for traffic from the Nablus area to Ramallah and the south of the West Bank. For the construction of the road, the Civil Administration expropriated 406 dunams of private land belonging to Palestinians from the nearby villages. The settlers are not satisfied with this at the moment, and demand to also travel through Hawara itself in order to demonstrate presence and control.

      (updated November 2023)

      .
      Huwara: traffic jam on the main road
      Fathiya Akfa
      May-12-2008
      Huwara: traffic jam on the main road
  • Za'tara (Tapuah)

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    • Za'tara (Tapuah) Za'tara 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 Tapuah 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'tara 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.  
      זעתרא (צומת תפוח). שלטים
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      Za'atra (Tapuah Intersection). Signs
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