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‘Azzun, Deir Sharaf, Eliyahu Crossing, Falamiya, Habla, Jit Junction , Kufr Jammal, Mon 19.8.13, Morning

Place: 'Azzun Deir Sharaf checkpoint Eliyahu CP (109) / Crossing Falamiya Habla Jit Junction Kufr Jammal
Tags: Palestinian farmers
Observers: Rahel A., Roni S.(reporting), Ayala S. (translator)
Aug-19-2013
| Morning
6:30: Habla, we see soldiers and Palestinians.
6:38: The first five passers-through exit the checking premises. The girl MZ (מ"צ) conducts a random check of people who had already been checked.
6:40: Another group of five exit. We noted that the average pace was 2-3 minutes per group of five, but they were often checked again on their way to the gate. A large crowd was still waiting. 
7:00: A commotion and shouting at the gate, probably due to the queues. One person told us that he had been waiting since 5am and his turn had still not come.
The MZ attempted to set things in order but in the mean time passage came to a short halt.
We left at 7:10 and there were still many people waiting. 
7:15: At Eliyahu CP there were no workmen on line and only few vehicles. 
7:35: Falamia agricultural gate: Many tractors entering the area. 
7:45: An elderly couple on a horse&buggy approach, apparently from Jayyus. They could barely get off their buggy.The soldier took their permits to check at the post, returned them and opened the gate for them to pass through. Some more tractors as well as two youths also passed through.
8:00: We left.
8:20:Kufr Jammal: Paid a visit to the Z.'s grocery, and tried to talk with him and his wife in a poor mixture of Hebrew, English, Arabic. A farmer neighbor was called over to help with some Hebrew – He had worked in Israel for years and could talk fluently. They told us about the hardship of the farmers due to lack of sufficient permits and hoped the matter would be addressed to ease their difficulties. He reminded me about a very similar situation near Falamia gate some three years back when Miriam and I spoke with Ad'al about the lack of permits and he had promised to remedy the situation.He believed we were doing the best we could but there were no results…Was very worried about the lands belonging to Beit Gimmal that would be left out of the new route of the separation Wall. A gate was planned to be set up just across from their Kafr but its construction hadn't been completed and there was no gate at present.
Continued along Road 55. 
9:20: Jit: Near the watchtower there was a jeep with soldiers.
9:50: Deir Sharaf
Had a talk with our acquaintance – the owner of the bakery/grocery, who was all for allowing Palestinians to establish businesses in Palestine and selling the merchandise in Israel: that would bring peace at once, no need for useless talks he said.
10:00: Eliyahu CP: A brief check of our ID and we passed through.

  • '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.

       

  • Deir Sharaf checkpoint

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    • Deir Sharaf checkpoint is located west of Nablus and south of the settlement of Shavei Shomron, at the entrance to the village of Deir Sharaf on the road leading to Nablus. The checkpoint was activated in early March 2009 after the Beit Iba checkpoint was closed. Palestinians are allowed through the checkpoint , but not for Israelis. Unlike the checkpoints leading to Qalqilya and Tulkarm, crossing of Israeli Palestinians is only allowed on Saturdays.

      דיר שאראף - הכניסה לכפר
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      Feb-28-2024
      Deir Sharaf - the entrance to the village
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  • Eliyahu CP (109) / Crossing

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    • Eliyahu CP (109) / Crossing This checkpoint, also known as the Fruit Crossing, is one of the main checkpoints between Israel and the West Bank. It is located on Route 55 between Alfei Menashe and the turn to Qalqilya and Zufin, more than 4 km east of the Green Line, in the separation fence, which separates Qalqilya from its lands to the south, thus leaving Alfei Menashe West of the fence - the Seam Zone. This checkpoint, a few kilometers across the Green Line, is intended for "Israeli settlement in the West Bank and the population of the Seam Zone." It is managed by a civil company. Palestinians with a special permit for their lands in the seam area are also allowed to pass through it, on foot, and sometimes by car.  

  • Falamiya

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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.

       

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      Nina Seba
      Aug-18-2025
      Habla: The gate is in the process of closing
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  • 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.

      כביש יצהר צומת ג'ית: פקק תנועה
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      Yitzhar Road, Jit Junction: traffic jam
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  • Kufr Jammal

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    • Kufr Jammal This village, rising about 200 meters over sea level, is located about 14 kilometers south of Tul Karm town and about 17 kilometers from the Mediterranean Sea. The families living there since the mid-18th century number about 3,000 persons at present. The village has lost thousands of dunams of its northern and western lands due to the construction of the Separation Barrier, leaving the lands themselves behind the barrier. After the Israeli Supreme Court ruling in 2011, the barrier was moved to the west and many farmlands were returned to their owners. It is a quiet village, its relations with the nearby settler-colony of Sal’it are favorable, and many of the villagers work in the colony’s industrial plants. Farmers cross the agricultural checkpoint close to this settler-colony in order to tend their fields unhampered. However, there are numerous acts of harassment and disorder taking place when the village farmers cross the other agricultural checkpoints: gates do not open at hours suitable to the farmers’ needs, and for a short period of time only; the Civil Administration usually prevents all kinds of crops except olives; tractors and other farm equipment are forbidden entry; only a single permit is issued per family, and occasionally such permits are confiscated and their re-issue is delayed – the common excuse is usually “security reasons”. How do the villagers make their living? Holders of work permits inside Israel travel at 3 a.m. to Eyal Checkpoint near Qalqiliya town in order to make it on time to their workplace at Sal’it (close to their village) and elsewhere. Owners of vegetable patches who hold permits are allowed to reach their fields beyond the Separation Barrier through the distant Falamiya Checkpoint. Importantly, fields returned to the village show amazing improvement intending, irrigation and farming variety – and instead of the neglected olive tree groves that were accessible only to holders of transit permits through agricultural checkpoints usually closed, farming has now flourished. (updated Jan 2021)  
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