‘Awarta, Beit Furik, Huwwara, Za’tara (Tapuah), Tue 10.3.09, Afternoon
Translation: Hanna K.
Purim. As in all Jewish Holidays there is a curfew in the West Bank.
13:45 Samaria Gate, we enter Palestine
14:05 Za'tara (Tapuah)
There are no people coming from the west and the north, most vehicles pass without checking with a sign of the hand by a soldier. A taxi in which there are five young men stops to talk to the soldiers. On the station for vehicles coming from the west there are still posters of the "National Union" (since the elections they have been there. Army property serves a political party for its propaganda).
14:20 Awarta
Theree soldiers man the new CP. There are three vehicles waiting. A new item – yellow iron barriers have been put up. That's to say that sometime the authority will decide to close the way. For part of the day, for a whole day, for one day, for a month, one cannot know.
14:30 Beit Furik
The CP was opened for traffic two months ago. Part of the CP which was intended for the passage of pedestrians is closed, but, surprise, vehicles from both directions are being checked. Three soldiers check ID cars and papers of the drivers. The checking is slow, and very quickly a queue forms. At the entrance to Nablus there are three vehicles, at the exit – five.
The soldiers behave towards us in a very violent manner – "you are not allowed to be here(a moment after we turned to go he made a sign with his hand that we should wait) fuck you, you have no right to take photographs, because I shall break your bones, fuck you mother, until she will have a son in the army she will not understand, only today we caught two boys" etc.
14:40 Huwwara
Three checking posts are active and another one which is called by the soldiers "humanitarian". The men's queue doesn't get shorter, the men pass the CP and others arrive. Riva measured a waiting period of about an hour, we heard the same estimate from two men. The men pass under a metal detector, come up to the post, show their IDs. On the other side of the CP they put on their belts and walethes. The "humanitarian" queue was empty most of the time. Filled up a little after 15:30. A signpost of the right wing organizations "many thanks to Watch at the CP for their help towards the success of our struggle – the terrorist organizations" – it concels the commande of coloner Itzik Bar according to which the presence of civilians in the sterile area is forbidden. Since when can army property serve as a bulleting board for the distribution of idelogical propaganda?
At the entrance to Nablus vehicles pass without being checked. A vehicle with a yellow plate, probably belonging to an Israeli-Palestinian, is made to return. The entrance to Nablus is forbidden for him. At the exit from the town there is a congestion, we can count 25 vehicles but one cannot see the end of the queue.There are two checking stations, IDs and papers are handed to the soldier in the work-station. Passengers wait at a distance from the station and approach only after the checking of the driver is completer. There is an x-ray vehicle.
On the path entering Nablus window boxes have been added, they bloom in purple. We looked on in astonishement. Three men came to us and told us the Palestinian folk story. A hunter went to the forest and saw two birds on a tree. He shoots at one of them. A bird which hid behind the tree looks at the bleeding bird and tells her friend, look tears are rolling from her eyes. The bird answers, don't look at her eyes, look at his gun. Before they went away the three men said "welcome" to us. We thought how nice it was that they, the locals, greet us, the strangers.
15:00 Two soldiers lead a young man of about twenty five out of the CP, through a side gate, to the path leading to Nablus, and up to the parking lot on the side of the CP near Nablus. Riva: "what is the matter, are we from the human rights organization?" One of the soldiers: "we are not an organization, we are the army". After about six minutes of talk at the parking lot, they lead the young man back to the queue.
The DCO S., told us that the young man has not identification. He tried to pass three time. If so, we cannot understand why the soldiers brought him back to the queue. We understood even less why the young man passed the fourth time (in what way is the fourth time different from the three others?). We asked the DCO also about the two detainees in the detention cell. He told us that they are taxi drivers and that they are detained for a quarter of an hour. Why? He didn't answer. At 16:10 when we left the two men are still in the cell. It has probably to do with the well know taxi driver issue. They stand near the turnstile leading to Nablus to catch passengers. Their proximity to the CP is not regarded favourably by the soldiers. The DCO says that "the people" (meaning the Palestinians) also said that it disturbs them because they block the narrow path which the planner of the CP had devises. The soldiers, according to him, only do what the people want. The subjects, one must assume, thank the sovereign.
16:40 Za'tara (Tapuah) seven vehicles at the station for vehicles coming from the north, there are no vehicles from the west.
'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.
Ronit Dahan-RamatiMar-10-2009Awarta: a long line of cars
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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)
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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)
.Fathiya AkfaMar-10-2009Huwara: traffic jam on the main road
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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.Shoshi AnbarSep-27-2023Za'atra (Tapuah Intersection). Signs
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