'Azzun, Habla
Azzun 11:15
We arrived at the entrance to the village and the officer at the checkpoint explained we could enter by foot, not by car. We explained who we are and why we were there. He was concerned and asked us to stop on our way out to make sure we were alright. On our way out there was no checkpoint, no officer and no ‘security’. The punishment dealt the village was over, surely at everyone’s surprise – the Palestinians, the nice officer, and the woman-soldier at the entrance. This small experience taught us once again a lesson about the whole point of the entire checkpoint system throughout the West Bank, Jerusalem and the ‘seam-line zone’.
Habla 13:15
It’s a hot day. Few people are waiting here, several women, and all of us witness a lively traffic of army jeeps manned by soldiers who come, stop, eat, open the gate and enter, and then come back and explain demonstratively that they have nothing to do with opening the gates for the Palestinians. There must be a certain ‘division of labor’ for these are responsible for chasing illegals crossing the nearby field. We did not see any evidence for their success.
This agricultural checkpoint is opened late, but the soldiers are efficient and the few Palestinians there cross swiftly in both directions. All complain about the new directive that sends farmers with their wares away to the main checkpoint. And naturally this all happens two days before the Yom Kippur closure. Atonement for the Israeli military occupation, anyone?
'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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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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