‘Azzun, Eliyahu Crossing, Habla, Kufr Jammal
The aim was to reach Palamiya north at 12:30, then to the new Palamiya south gate and to finish at Habla and to see whether the agricultural gates are opened on time and to hear what the farmers who pass through them have to say.
11:40 Eliyahu crossing. Few cars pass westwards without hindrance. There are no cars which are being checked.
11:50 Azzun. A short visit to Z. with bags full of children's clothes. Z. is, as usual, glad to see us. His shop look today like at shoe shop. The collective closure which had been imposed on Azoun as a collective punishment due to their demonstration on Saturday, has been lifted a day before. It's years since they ask to be allowed to drive by the road leading eastwards, which had once been the main road connecting Azoun and the surrounding villages on the way to Nablus. The road had been physically blocked, but recently a fence with a gate has been installed there. However, the gate is not opened. They receive no response to their appeals and so they went to demonstrate – the army arrive, stones were thrown, the town has been closed. The familiar and anticipated chronicle.
12:15 Kafr Jamal. We stopped to a moment at Z.'s shop and tarried. The pass, which was valid for two years, from September 2014, of one of his sons, who daily passes through the Palamiya agricultural gate in the morning and returns in the evening, was taken from him on the preceding evening. He was summoned to the Kilkilya DCO but when he was there in the morning they didn't want to talk to him, didn't explain anything and he returned as he came. We tried to find out what he was expected to do. After she got his details Sylvia was directed to the center for the protection of the individual and to the Palestinian DCO and said she would find out on Sunday. At the center they told him that they could help his father but not him…????
We began driving in the direction of Palamiya and the gate, but a phone call from Micky made us return to the shop. We tried finding out at the operations room why he was not received, they shall find out…Micky also gave some advice and instructions and asked that he call her in the morning from the DCO Kilkilya so that she would be able to understand what was happening.The arbitrariness of the army's behavior, the repeated harrassement of the Palestinian farmer, without any reason, and the defenselessness of the young man against the strong and alien body are not new, but every time this causes outrage. This also was not a case of (not) closing a circle, as according to M. they always register them in the morning, never at night!!!
12:55. It was too late for Palamiya north so we decided, because of the rain and the slosh to drive on the main road to Palamiya south, but after a short drive on the gravel road on which there was a lot of mud and deep puddles we decided to give up, as the last part of the road leading to Palamiya south, was even worse.
13:30 Habla. Lately there were considerable delays in the opening of the gates, but not this time, according to the persons we asked.
The gates were wide open, a big tractor skirted a big truck full of construction waste, in the direction of Habla. The minibus with the girls passed (and also managed to return before the CP was closed). The soldiers stood near the other gate. One of them conducted a long telephone conversation, probably concerning the truck with the construction waste. Naturally the driver was not allowed to pass with it. We tried to find out from the driver whether he had intended to unload it at a regulated site on the West Bank, he replied impatiently that he didn't know. He also wasn't able to answer the question where he usually discharges such cargo. In the end a solution was found: He made a U turn on the system road, drove a few meters, discharged all of the construction waste on the side of the road, approximately opposiste A.'s plant nursery, and quickly returned. He namaged to pass in the direction of Habla before the closure. During the time we were there a few cars and one person on a bicycle passed.
'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.
Ronit Dahan-RamatiApr-25-2025Habla Checkpoint: system of gates
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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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