Azzun, Beit Iba, Mon 14.4.08, Morning
09.05 Azzun is closed and a military car is at the entrance.
09.25 Beit Iba. The lines are not long and there are about 8 cars in each direction. Two buses full of women and children are waiting to enter Nablus. The commander who is a sergeant and another soldier get in, check quickly and release them. There are hardly any pedestrians going in and young people are checked against the list. At the exit where there are two checking areas there are not many people waiting. People have to strip and empty their belongings. No smiles when they leave.
10.15 We see a long line at the entrance to the city. More than15 cars. The commander is not present. Has he gone to rest? Amongst the reservists are a number of religious men and though they do not answer Francis’ questions they do not actively oppose our being at the checkpoint. We see that the soldier checking cars at the entrance is delaying cars for a long time and one of the drivers says that there are long delays when women of Machsomwatch are at the checkpoint. The DCO promised to deal with this and goes over to him. When we left we saw that the passage was swifter but that there were still many cars
'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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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.
Jun-4-2014Beit-Iba checkpoint 22.04.04
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