‘Azzun ‘Atma, Burin (Yitzhar), Huwwara, Za’tara (Tapuah), Wed 11.11.09, Morning
Translation: Hanna K.
Summary:
Complaints about delays in the afternoon at Azzun 'Atma; a mobile CP of the Border Police at the Yitzhar Junction; Visit at the Eb'n Sina college (for welfare professions),spitting at the Barrels CP.
07:05 Azzun Atma
Many workmen are still waiting for employers to come and collect them.
At the CP itself there are few people who cross over. Below are complaints which we heard from the workmen: pressure and delays at the second CP, which makes it necessary for them to leave very early; a further delay in the afternoon on the way home makes things very difficult; work at the settlements watched by armed soldiers is distressing and humiliating. We checked with the soldiers the single complaint that this morning the CP was not opened on time, that the checking was slow and that they waited for a long time. They answered unanimously that they opened at 04:30 as required and that no workman waited for more than five minutes. They added that they had no interest in delaying, and that it was in their own interest that queues shouldn't accumulate! (they sounded trustworthy)*.
The level of anger and frustration mounts. Some workmen express openly their despair, that they don't have any expectations from their own authority, and even less from the Israeli government. The solution for their diffcult situation and for their removal from their land would, according to them, be achieved only by armed resistance!!!
It would be worthwhile to listen to the expression of their feelings!
Note:
*It would be worthwhile to arrive from time to time at the scheduled opening in order to check the situation thoroughly.
07:30 Za'tara-Tapuah
From the west there are no people. From the north there are up to 8 vehicles waiting.
At the parking lot there is a police car, but we didn't notice any detainees.
07:45 The village of Huwwara
One can notice a great commotion of vehicles and pedestrians (not necessarily in the direction of the school). Later we understood the reason for this – many people gathered to go to Ramallah, for the memorial ceremonies commemorating the fifth year of Arafat's death.
At the Burin/Yitzhar Junction (on the road to Huwwara): a rolling checkpoint of the border police. Two taxis and their passengers were waiting for the checking to end. But despite this we drove first to the CP to check the situation there.
Huwwara CP
There is no special commotion. The passage is usually free. When we arrive a midi bus was waiting to be checked but was released shortly afterwards by the commander. In the direction of the entrance to Nablus they mainly stop cars with Israeli number plates for checking, according to the commander: "especially because the entrance for Jews is absolutely forbidden!" We exchanged words with the commander who came to us on his own initiative. One still can't see the promised widening of the lanes, according to him this will be accomplished within a short time.
08:30 Back to the Burin/Yitzhar Junction
We asked the Border Policemen what the purpose of the rolling checkpoint was, as free traffic had been promised. According to them there are alerts, but they will go away shortly. From the Palestinians we meet next to the Ceramics Plant we learned that there is such a rolling CP every day. Our presence somehow sped the checking up, but when we left we again saw two taxis detained for checking.
The Eb'n Sina College
We were also told that soldiers patrolling on this road and on the road leading towards the new college for welfare professions, Eb'n Sina (which was opened a month ago, before that it was active at Ramallah), were harrassing girl students, and this is what happened yesterday. We therefore went to the college to clarify the matter.
First we talked with a few girl students on the stairs, they hadn't heard about such an event. As we expressed out wish to visit inside, we were respectfully invited to do so by the management. In the room of the headmistress we heard information about college and told them who we were. The headmistress too hadn't heard about the event. For all intents and purposes we left visiting cards and necessary phone numbers.
At the college which is budgeted by the Authority there are a few hundred students from all over the Authority, men too (during the last years when the college acted at Ramallah no boys studied there), and they undergo their training period in hospitals and clinics. A few years ago they had a connection with the Tel Ha-Shomer Shiba hospital, and they would be happy if this connection would be renewed and knowhow and experience could be exchanged. We promised to ask and to pass this one to the appropriate people.
The students arrive by themselves, and there are also transportations. At this point the headmistress asked for our help regarding one of the drivers who is employed by one of the bus companies who is detained every time, especially at Ateret. We transferred his details to Hanna. They bed us farewell very warmly.
It seems that the location of this college at Huwwara will benefit the whole area.
09:40 On the Huwwara Road
The road is absolutely jammed by hundreds of vehicles packed with passengers and decorated with the flags of the Palestinian Authority and Patach's. Everybody is travelling to Ramallah to the memorial services. It turns out that an order was issued not to detain vehicles between 08:00 and 10:00 to enable them to get to Ramallah without difficulties. In the moment before and after the time was used for the rolling CP. Now it is not to be seen. This is the peak time, and we had difficulty to pass on to road number 60 at the Burin/Yitzhar Junction.
'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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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)
.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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