‘Azzun ‘Atma, Thu 20.8.09, Afternoon
‘Azzun ‘Atma We arrived at the southern checkpoint at 16:15.Laborers get out of cars with yellow (Israeli) license plates, returning from their workday and immediately lining up at the entrance to the checkpoint. They wait for instructions from the checkpoint commander who’s standing near the tent. He motions to them to approach the building. There they pass their ID’s through a slot to a soldier visible through a window.
On the other side of the road, under the fig tree, sit a group of children. When a vehicle stops, two of them run over and try to sell figs and sabras. Sometimes they also run into the street, carelessly. From time to time, randomly, the checkpoint commander stops one of the Palestinians and asks whom he works for, and where he lives, and similar questions.
A boy enters the village without being checked. One of the soldiers asks only his name and motions him through. A few minutes later the boy leaves the village after buying things at the grocer’s. Now the soldiers want to see his documents and ask him questions, like: does he fast during Ramadan? For their general information…
A boy with a bicycle is sent to the building where people are inspected, shows documents and enters the village (the photo on the left).The laborers keep arriving, and we leave at 16:30.
'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
-