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‘Azzun ‘Atma, Sun 3.8.08, Morning

Place: 'Azzun 'Atma
Observers: Edna L., Ditza (reporting); translation: Deborah J.
Aug-03-2008
| Morning

 

 Terrible; completely surreal.

 05:40  We’re not allowed to pass through the gate. The checkpoint commander, First Sgt. “Alef,” pays no heed when we tell him that we always go through. This is an order he’s received.Many people in the queue, some two hundred or more. Some claim that they’ve been waiting at the checkpoint since 4 o’clock a.m.

About 50 vehicles and more continue to arrive.
The CP commander alone checks the vehicles entering the village and those leaving for the Territories, and also the pedestrians – admittedly few – who are headed for the Territories. As it goes on, there’s also a large group of laborers with permits, waiting at the side of the regular queue. The CP commander doesn’t display an excessive degree of humanity towards the Palestinians, and when we raise the matter of the long queues and protracted waiting time for pedestrians and vehicles alike, is response is that he’s performing the work as he should. On the other hand, he really is working tirelessly, and eventually speeds up the vehicles’ exit by giving them merely a quick, superficial check. However, it’s simply impossible that one soldier can perform all the tasks required here. 

06:15 
An adult man with his nine-year-old son – the boy isn’t allowed to enter ‘Azzun ‘Atma because he doesn’t have his birth certificate with him. The document the father shows, that clearly states that this boy is his son, doesn’t convince the CP commander. Our intervention doesn’t help, either. The father insists, and the commander threatens to close down the checkpoint and does actually start shutting the gate. At this point, the father and son leave the place. A driver with whom we spoke tells us he’s been waiting for 40 minutes. 

06:50  Laborers who work at Elkana [a veteran Israeli settlement in the West Bank –ed.] ask us to speak with the CP commander so he’ll let them pass. They are supposed to arrive at Elkana by 7 a.m., after which the gate is closed and they have no way to get in. Our request is granted and they go out. An absurd, utterly surreal situation: Here we are, helping Palestinians get on with building Elkana.  

Meanwhile, this queue of Elkana laborers has been joined by many others, dozens of people with passage permits. The CP commander hadn’t expected so many people and seems a bit bewildered: he doesn’t know what to do first, whether to let them through or to go back to inspecting the long line of vehicles.  06:55We leave the checkpoint. A fellow who travels with us in our cab says that he’s been waiting at the checkpoint since 4:40 a.m.

 

  • 'Azzun 'Atma

    See all reports for this place
    • '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

       

      עזון: הכניסה הראשית לכפר עזון: חסומה כבר מספר שבועות
      Apr-11-2019
      Azoun: The main entrance to village blocked now for several weeks
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