‘Azzun ‘Atma, Thu 10.7.08, Afternoon
Azzun-Atma
We had intended to get to Azun Atmeh after Beit Iba but already on the way we received a phone call about the violence at the cbeckpoint (the gate of the fence) at Azun.
When we arrived at 16:15 people rushed to tell us that at 15:15 border police had arrived and begun beating the workers who returned from Israel. These soldiers together with the soldiers at the checkpoint (and the commander of the checkpoint was pointed out to us by a witness, a first sergeant with short hair and a little beard) had taken two people it seems behind the checking booth. Some said they had been taken into the x-ray room and others that they had been beaten behind the pillbos. From the place where they stood, at an exit from the village the place could be seen clearly,. After the "treatment" the men could hardly stand on their feet.
When we were driving to the checkpoint in a taxi a driver signalled to us and he also wanted to inform us as to what had happened. He added that one of the men had been taken to hospital in Bidiya (evidently a clinic to hospitalize people), None of the Palestinians had seen the actual beating as the soldiers had made sure that there were no witnesses
When we got to the checkpoint there were 50 cars in both directions. The taxi driver who was first in line said that for an hour and a half no one had gone through. 30 pedestrians were waiting in line and in the shed were 20 detainees whom we were not allowed to speak to.
Half an hour after we arrived there was no longer a queue in either direction. Pedestrians came and went and detainees were kept from 15 minutes and more and others went through to the West Bank. At no stage were there more than 6 or 7 people waiting for a short time.
Drivers who had brought us to the checkpoint said that before we arrived the period waiting had been much longer. The people literally begged that we should come there especially on Thursday which is the most difficult day as the workers return from Israel. They refused to accept payment and the one said that before he had not made a living as he was just standing in line at the checkpoint and once we came then he had managed to make some money.
'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
Apr-11-2019Azoun: The main entrance to village blocked now for several weeks
-