‘Azzun, ‘Azzun ‘Atma, Habla, Shomron Crossing, Tue 25.12.12, Afternoon
Today’s a holiday on the West Bank. Schools are closed, many people in the streets, heavy traffic.
12:55 Habla. 10 men wait to enter.
13:00 The gate opens on time. Three horse carts enter, one loaded with fresh cauliflowers. The first five people enter the inspection station. A truck and a pickup truck loaded with olive trees leave the village. No lines; the crossing flows in both directions.
13:25 We leave.
13:30 ‘Arab a-Ramadin. About a month ago they finished building a school. Four structures covered with white plastic sheeting and roofed with green canvas, three classrooms and a teachers’ room. One of the teachers is from the village and three are from Qalqilya. The school has 50 pupils in grades 1, 2 and 3. The older pupils attend school in Habla or Qalqilya. A., the mukhtar’s son, tells us the school was built on land owned by his family. The school was issued a demolition order. We write down phone numbers in order to contact the attorney who’s dealing with the order on their behalf (in two weeks we’ll return to take photographs).
14:00 Nabi Elias. We stop for falafel.
14:20 Azzun. We stop at Z.’s shop and unload parcels we’ve brought him. He won’t let us leave unless we have coffee.
15:00 Kafr Laqf. The yellow bar is raised. We enter a well-kept village, clean, with sidewalks. The curbs are marked with red and white or black and white stripes. The grocery clerk says there are no problems. It’s quiet and good in the village. A man from Ginot Shomron who’s in the shop says, “He’s a wonderful man. I’ve known him for 30 years. Him and his father.“ We enter more stores and talk to people. Everyone says that the army comes infrequently, makes a circuit and leaves. The village has 700-1000 people. Some have work permits in the settlements and in factories, some have work permits for Israel and everyone has agricultural land.
With respect to building – they’re not permitted to build at the entrance to the village, but inside there aren’t any problems. We see many construction starts (What area is it? C?)
16:00 Shomron checkpoint. Vehicles cross quickly.
Azzun Atma. About 40 Palestinians on line for inspection. Settlers’ vehicles stop, Palestinians get out and join the line in the shed. One says it takes hours to cross. We decided to time it. 5-6 people enter; the crossing flows. Only two booths are open. The person we watched reached the inspection station in 20 minutes. The soldier in charge of sending Palestinians for inspection wears a skullcap, speaks quietly and politely. That seems to have an effect on those waiting in line. Everything goes relatively peacefully. We ask another soldier what it’s like in the morning, and why the Palestinians wait for hours. He says those arriving at 03:30, though the gate only opens at 05:00, wait a long time. He’s a reservist, works in hi-tech, thinks the gate is equivalent to an actual border crossing and the afternoon inspection of people returning to the village is necessary to close the circle. He believes in the mission he’s been called to carry out…While we’re there a soldier stands pointing a sub-machine gun at the people on line. The occupation routine.
'Azzun
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Azoun (updated February 2019)
A Palestinian town situated in Area B (under civil Palestinian control and Israeli security control),
on road 5 between Nablus and Qalqiliya, east of Nabi Elias village. The inhabitants are allowed to construct and improve infrastructures. The Separation Fence has confiscated lands belonging to the town's people. In 2018 olive tree groves owned by one of its inhabitants were confiscated for the sake of paving a road to bypass Nabi Elias. Azoun population numbers 13,000, its economic state dire. Its infrastructures are poor, neglect and poverty rampant. In the meantime, the town council has completed paving an internal road for the inhabitants' welfare.
Because of its proximity to the Jewish settler-colony of Karnei Shomron and its outposts, the town suffers the intense presence of the Israeli army, especially at nighttime: soldiers enter homes, arrest suspects, trash the house and sometimes ruin it, as they do in numerous places in the West Bank. At times a checkpoint closes the entrance to the town, so no one can come in or get out.
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'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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Habla
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Habla CP (1393)
The Habla checkpoint (1393) was established on the lands of the residents of Qalqilya, on the short road that
connected it for centuries to the nearby town of Habla. The separation barrier intersects this road twice and cut off the residents of Qalqilya from their lands in the seam zone.(between the fence and the green line).
There is a passage under Road 55 that connects Qalqilya to the sabotage This agricultural barrier is used by the farmers and nursery owners established along Road 55 from the Green Line and on both sides of the kurkar road leading to the checkpoint.
This agricultural checkpoint serves the residents of Arab a-Ramadin al-Janoubi (detached from the West Bank), who pass through it to the West Bank and back to their homes. The opening hours (3 times a day) of this agricultural checkpoint are longer than usual, about an hour (recently shortened to 45 minutes), and are coordinated with the transportation hours of a-Ramadin children studying in the occupied in the West Bank.Ronit Dahan-RamatiApr-25-2025Habla Checkpoint: system of gates
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Shomron Crossing
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Shomron Crossing The Shomron checkpoint for vehicles. is located east of Rosh HaAyin and Kafr Qassem, on Road 5 (Trans-Samaria) leading to Ariel and the Za'atara junction. It is intended for blue ID cardholders, foreign guests or diplomats, and international organizations only. In 2009 the management was entrusted to a civil security company.Nava EisenNov-9-2008Shomron crossing checkpoint 23.10.08
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