‘Awarta, Burin (Yitzhar), Huwwara, Za’tara (Tapuah), Thu 21.1.10, Afternoon
Translation: Tal H.
Za'tara Checkpoint – No waiting lines.
Huwwara Checkpoint – No waiting lines. Random checking.
Awarta Checkpoint – No vehicles waiting. We choose to visit the village following the recent news about the desecration of Muslim tombstones at the village cemetery. The Binyamin regional brigade commander has announced he will arrive to investigate today whether or not army personnel were involved in the act.
A Haredi (ultra-orthodox) Jewish festivity under army escort perpetrated acts of violence against Awarta residents and left local graves desecrated Following, account of the events that took place at the Shurab family home in Awarta village (near Nablus) on January 19th 2010, as told to us by Mu’ayed Shurab and his father Jamil (I have his phone number) from 3:30 p.m. until late nighttime:
The family home is situated above the village cemetery, where two ancient Jewish graves are located (?). Religious Jews from Bnei Brak come there to pray over the ancient graves every year at this time. The army escorts them to their ceremony. Throughout the year individuals arrive to pray unescorted by the army.
On Tuesday night, at 10:30 PM, the army came to their home. Knocked on the door. When the family did not hurry to open, soldiers hurled a stun grenade into the house, entered with an officer and ordered the family to gather in a single room and hand over their cell phones. Father Jamil said there are additional cell phones in a certain drawer in the closet. The soldiers said they intended to climb up to the roof and observe the festivity from there.
One soldier stood guard over then in the crowded room while the others conducted a search through the house. It was cold. The soldiers muddied up the place. The officer asked an Arabic-speaking soldier to report to him what the family members were saying to each other. One of the soldiers said: “Maybe they’ll sell their house”… A soldier wanted to body-search Jamil’s daughter-in-law, but Jamil yelled at him not to dare touch her. They were prevented from going to the bathroom when they needed to, and were kept this way until 4:30 in the morning, when the festivity was over.
As the mission was concluded and the soldiers meant to leave, they returned the personal cell phones to the family held in the room. Jamil called out to them: What about the cell phones you took from the closet?
When the soldiers left the house, the family members began to clean up the mud and filth and two hours later, under a stair, they found the cell phones and … 21,000 NIS (shekel) that had been hidden in the same drawer as the cell phones.
Namely – the soldiers realized that Jamil was on to their removing the cell phones from the drawer, so he must have also guessed that the money was stolen, and that is why the treasure was left under the stair at the last minute.
The next day the family members went to lodge a complaint at the DCO, and officer Kamil said he couldn’t handle a complaint against the army, it’s not his job, they should turn to the civilian police.
As for what happened in the cemetery, adjacent to the house:
This year fifteen bus loads of Haredi Jews and thirty army vehicles arrived at the site. The celebrants held a picnic in the Muslim graveyard, lit a campfire, broke tombstones, left food on tombstones, plastic eating utensils – plates, cups, beer cans.
In 1975 two graves in the cemetery were declared a Jewish holy site, a plaque was placed with this inscription, and Haredi Jews began to conduct pilgrimages there. According to the family, the two graves had previously been known to be Muslim. Jamil’s father had told about this. Jamil is sixty-years old.
In the village there are two more sites sacred to Jews and that night slur inscriptions were left on tombstones there.
Our testimony:
The cemetery is filthy with food remains, trampled, there is campfire ash between the graves, food thrown over tombstones, more and more youngsters and children approach us, offer us sage tea, photograph us and promise to send me the photos on email. (Hell, I forgot my camera at home again…) Meki connects Jamil with Azmi of ‘Yesh Din’ who promises to come, take testimony and file charges against the army.
On our way back we are approached by a young man who introduces himself as Kais Awad, head of the local council. He wants to show us the two more sites that were desecrated. Boys take us to the center of the village to see two desecrated tombstones, that were photographed and publicized on internet news yesterday (that was the reason we decided to visit the village and see for ourselves).
Needless to say, not a single representative of the army has been at the village to investigate since the event. We were the ones to express our deep revulsion.
We traveled back in the dark.
Army jeeps are stationed as flying checkpoints on the road bound for Burin/Yitzhar, opposite Beita, and opposite Marda.
'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-RamatiJan-6-2026Awarta: Traffic jam on the way to Nablus
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Burin (Yitzhar)
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Burin (Yitzhar)
This is a Palestinian village in the Nablus governorate, a little south of Nablus, on the main road passing through the West Bank. The settlements: Yitzhar and Har Bracha, settled in locations that surrounded the village, placed fences so it is cut off the main road.
There are around 4000 inhabitants. Most of them are engaged in agriculture and pasture, although many graduates of the two secondary schools continue to study at the university. Academic positions are hardly available, they find work as builderd, or leave for the Gulf countries.
The village lands were appropriated several times for the establishment of Israeli settlements and military bases, and as a result, Burin's land and water resources dwindled. lSince 1982, more than 2,000 dunams of village land have been declared "state land" and then transferred to Har Bracha settlement.
Over the past few years and more so since 2017, the villagers have been terrorized by the residents of Yitzhar and Har Bracha, the Givat Ronen outpost and others. Despite the close proximity of soldiers to an IDF base close to one of the village's schools, residents are suffering from numerous stone-throwing events, vehicle and fire arson, also reported in the press.
In 2023, the prevention of the olive harvest in the village plot was more violent than ever. Soldiers and settlers walked with drawn weapons between the houses of the village and demanded that people stop harvesting in the village itself and in the private plots outside the village. The settlers from Yitzhar and Giv'at Roned raided the olive groves and stole crops. 300 olive trees belonging to the residents of Burin, near Yitzhar, were uprooted. The loss of livelihood from the olives causes long-term economic damage to the farmers' families, bringing them to the point of starvation.
(updated for November 2023)
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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)
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Shoshi AnbarMay-18-2025Huwara: The old houses in Area C
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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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