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Azzun, Beit Iba, Jit, Mon 7.1.08, Afternoon

Observers: Elisheva A. Bilha A. Yonah A. Natanya translating.
Jan-07-2008
| Afternoon

15.40 Hardly any movement and people leaving Nablus are checked on a list.

16.00 A Palestinian who returns from work in Natanya complains that in the mornings the checkpoint is opened late and when it rains the pedestrian passage is flooded. There is no drainage and people have to walk in the water. The representative of the DCO promised to investigate the problem.

A loaded donkey cart goes on the road to Nablus. The donkey stops and defecates next to the checkpoint. The soldier forces the driver to collect the animal droppings. Elisheva feels the insult to the man and helps him. The commander, sergeant Y. comes up, hears what she has to say and says he will speak to the soldier. The soldier is angry and says that if he wanted to he could have stopped the man from going through and if he himself dirties anything he cleans it up.

Palestinians who come through Nablus tell of long lines which move very slowly at Anabta.

Although there are few people today at Beit Iba people are furious at the new order of things which includes the magnometer which is very sensitive to even a buckle. An elderly man comes up and complains about a woman soldier who speaks rudely and that he has to take his belt off. He says that all he wants to do is visit his son. And that Hasan Nasrallah should come to this place.

16.45 A rolling checkpoint at Jit. 30 cars from the north checked by two soldiers who stand next to a spiked barrier. Cars with yellow plates bypass the long line quickly. After the crosspoint is another checkpoint for those coming from the west. More than 20 cars. No blue police today on the road. Is this in preparation for the visit of Bush.

16.50 The pink house, Shvut Ami, is lit up. The entrance to Azzun is open and there are no soldiers.

  • '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.

       

  • Beit Iba

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    • A perimeter checkpoint west of the city of Nablus. Operated from 2001 to 2009 as one of the four permanent checkpoints closing on Nablus: Beit Furik and Awarta to the east and Hawara to the south. A pedestrian-only checkpoint, where MachsomWatch volunteers were present daily for several hours in the morning and afternoon to document the thousands of Palestinians waiting for hours in long queues with no shelter in the heat or rain, to leave the district city for anywhere else in the West Bank. From March 2009, as part of the easing of the Palestinian movement in the West Bank, it was abolished, without a trace, and without any adverse change in the security situation.  
      Beit-Iba checkpoint 22.04.04
      Neta Efroni
      Jun-4-2014
      Beit-Iba checkpoint 22.04.04
  • Jit Junction

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    • The checkpoint is located on Route 60 near at the junction with Route 55, near the village of Jit. There was a checkpoint for vehicles passing between the north and south of the West Bank, which was abolished towards 2010. Since then, surprise checkpoints have been set up there from time to time with a police or Border Police vehicle, and vehicles and their passengers are inspected.

      14.05.14 Jit junction צומת ג'ית
      Yehudith Levin
      May-14-2014
      14.05.14 Jit junction צומת ג'ית
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