‘Azzun, Habla, Tue 2.10.12, Afternoon
13:45
The Habla gate is open. The bus carrying the children coming home from school is inspected rigorously and goes through. Six cars loaded with seedlings cross to the plant nursery. A horse cart and five people cross after being inspected.
14:15
The gate closes. We continue to Azzun where Petahya arranged a meeting with an activist who’ll update us about the situation with work permits.
15:00
Azzun. A.G. welcomed us on his porch. He told us his brother-in-law had submitted applications for 9 people; one was granted and the others never received an answer.
The Israeli DCO limits the number of permits that can be granted by the Palestinian DCO.
Azzun’s lands are surrounded by a horseshoe formed by the settlements of Ma’aleh Shomron and Alfey Mensashe. Residents of Azzun have no crossing gate, so they aren’t able to request permits. The army allots them two days to cross via the security road in order to reach their trees to pick the olives.
There is no access to Palestinian land and olive trees located in Alfey Menashe and Ma’aleh Shomron. When they have a permit they must use the Eliyahu crossing. It’s a long detour and the security inspections are irksome.
15:20
We reached the pastoral area where they’re picking olives in Azzun. Seated in the shade of the trees, we listened to our Palestinian hosts describe the difficulties they face daily, how the sewage from the settlements flows past their water tower and pollutes Azzun’s drinking water.
We took A.G.’s information, to try and help.
15:40
We left Azzun’s olive groves and the harvesters.
'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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