‘Azzun, Eliyahu Crossing, Habla, Jayyus, Tue 25.9.12, Afternoon
On 17.7.2012 we’d met with the spokesman for the Azzun municipality following a report in the Arab press that the IDF had arrested eight youths in the middle of the night. Today we met him again.
11:45
Eliyahu checkpoint – One auto being inspected, trunk open; a dog handler and his dog are also participating.
11:55
Azzun – Meeting with Hassan Shbeita, the municipal spokesman.
Yesterday branches were lopped off three trees next to the road. Afterwards a video was taken of the result. They still don’t know who cut the trees. A firm is working there, repairing the road, and they may have found it necessary to do it (for some unknown reason). But it’s also possible that settlers assuaged their anger on the trees. The woman who owns the land will file a complaint with the Palestinian police.
The olive harvest begins next week. He doesn’t have a record of how many people applied for permits to reach their groves, and how many received them. The adults leave for the harvest in the morning and their children join them after school. They must cross Highway 55 in order to reach their land. Last year the soldiers in the observation tower were afraid the children intended to throw rocks at settlers’ cars passing on the road, and arrested them. Their request: to allow the children to reach their parents’ lands in order to help them harvest the olives.
Karin tells him about the new forms they have to fill out in order to obtain permits. It turns out they don’t know about them. They’ll contact the Palestinian DCO.
The most urgent problem is to allow tractors and vehicles south of Azzun and west of Ma’aleh Shomron. Vehicles aren’t able to go through the northern crossing near Ma’aleh Shomron; the area is strewn with heavy boulders.
Bulldozers which had been working in the area of the high tension electric antennas serving the settlers cut the roots of venerable trees. All of them died.
Last week the army arrived for a surprise inspection. They drove around the locality a few times and arrested a man who’d been tried in the past, served 4 years in prison and was released. His family still doesn’t know where he is. We gave Hassan the phone number of the human rights lawyers and also suggested he contact Yesh Din.
When we were here in July we were told about eight youths who’d been accused of throwing rocks at settlers’ cars and sent to the Megiddo prison. Hassan tells us about one of them, 16 years old, who after being harshly interrogated and tortured agreed to sign whatever they put before him and was sentenced to 14 years in prison. They don’t allow his mother to visit him. The other youths were sentenced to 5, 8 and 9 years, and each of them was fined NIS 5,000, an amount none of their families can pay.
13:10
We say goodbye and leave Azzun.
13:20
Jayyous – We visit N. and give the family parcels of clothing and toys.
13:30
Eliyahu crossing – Three vehicles being inspected. Light traffic.
Habla – The checkpoint is closed. No one can enter or leave.
The end.
'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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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.
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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.
Nina SebaAug-18-2025Habla: The gate is in the process of closing
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Jayyus North (935)
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