Azzun, Beit Iba, Wed 19.12.07, Afternoon
Natanya translating.
14.15 At Azzun two weeks ago there was a barrier of cement but today there is none. A Hummer with soldiers is now there. At the crossroads of Jit there are no people or cars. Zecharia had asked us to stop there and we received a document from two children on which was written that the part of road 55 where the farmers of Jiot pass to the lands is permitted for those living in the area.
15.00 At Beit Iba we found Zecharia waiting with two detainees and the document was to be used to free them.
We spoke to the commander and he said that they had been detained not because of road 55 but because they had been on an army road. But at that moment he got a phone call which enabled him to free the men. Little traffic at the checkpoint and all is calm and the traffic moves steadily. We spoke to the commander, Yaakov. We were very impressed at his openness and the way he solved problems quietly and with thought. This is not usually what we find at this checkpoint.
Tammie asked him what policy the army would follow if there were no checkpoints. He said they would build schools, invest in education. There are also such people at the checkpoints.
A case which he solved. 3 brothers came to him and said that their younger brother was not allowed to pass with them as their parents were not with them. They had visited their aunt in Nablus and wanted to go home to Tulkarm.
He told them to call the boy but when they wanted to go on their way the same soldier stopped them but the commander told him to let them pass. The soldier tried to argue but to no avail. Quietly in a way which is characteristic of this commander he ordered him to do as he was told and the soldier had no coice even though he said he did not understand. It is obvious that problems could be solved if there were only more commanders such as he. He uses his discretion, humanity and takes responsibility. All honour to him.
There was a representative of the DCO there but he did not do much.
16.00 We left Beit Iba and found Ababta empty and those who did arrive there passed with no problems and so it was at A-Ras. We left flowers for the teacher at Jubara for the holiday.
'Azzun
See all reports for this place-
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
See all reports for this place-
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
-