Beit Furik, Burin (Yitzhar), Huwwara, Za’tara (Tapuah), Mon 2.6.08, Afternoon
Translation: Tal H.,
Shaar Shomron Checkpoint (entry into the West Bank) – dense police presence.
No detainees.
Marda village western entrance – open. We have been noticing this for some weeks now. Same at the eastern entrance.
Zeita-Jama'in village entrance – sealed with concrete blocks and iron gate, doubly secured.
14:00 – Za'tara Junction Checkpoint
One car passes eastbound, five cars waiting coming from the north (Nablus).
Relatively fast passage. Reservists manning the checking posts.
Soldiers securing Jewish settlers (i.e. colonists) at the hitchhikers' posts surrounding the junction roundabout. On our way back we notice the central (shooting) post manned by a soldier.
Beita village entrance – field noticeably burnt. Why? We assumed thorns and weeds had been scorched under control.
Burin-Yitzhar road blocks unmanned.
14:15 – Huwwara Checkpoint
Yells resonating throughout – soldier yelling ID numbers for checking.
The 'sterile' area is back in force: A soldier approaches the exit turnstiles and yells at the men getting their belts back into their pants and fixing their appearance after the inspection: "Get on with it, go, everyone!"
Someone got over-motivated, apparently, and painted "our" white line blue.
No sniffer-dog, nor dog-trainer. Well, it's a hot day. Dogs detect bombs only in the winter…
Lieutenant E. – checkpoint commander. Z. – DCO representative.
Since we did not see Mohammad anywhere – the boy who regularly cleans up the checkpoint compound, we asked Z. about him. Apparently he was hit by a truck inside Nablus a few dsays ago, and now both his legs are fractured. We were sad to hear this.
Three women pass a new washing machine through the special side line. They seem to have undergone an especially fastidious inspection, for when we congratulated them on their new machine, they signaled a choking gesture around their necks and looked at the soldiers…
A young man approaches us, in fluent Hebrew, and tells us he had a magnetic card until 2003, but when he went to get it re-validated, he was informed that he was GSS-prevented (black-listed for 'security' reasons). Z. calls up the DCO to inquire about him and announce there is nothing he can do about this. Because it's in the hands of the GSS. We gave the man Sylvia's number.
15:00 – Beit FuriK
One car waiting at the upper carpark.
At the entrance turnstiles, for the Nablus-bound pedestrians, we found new signs written in Arabic. We asked one of the people present in line and he translated for us:
"To stand one by one here by the turnstiles and cross one by one."
Y., the checkpoint commander, comes to greet us and ask-order us to get back.
We asked him about the signs, too, and here is how he translated them:
"You are kindly requested to wait by the turnstiles and pass one by one in order to avoid unpleasantness".
We asked if the kindly requested was written as an opener or as a thank you at he end of the sign. "I don't know" he answered, "I don't read Arabic." He came back and asked us to move back, the soldiers have been complaining about us, and since the checkpoint was functioning quietly without long waiting lines, we left.
15:30 Huwwara –
One of the women-soldiers yells: "Terrorist procedure in the compound!" All checking posts shut down. "Get back, get back!" the soldiers yell.
"Block the car park!" yells the commander. The entrance path was also blocked.
Inside the checkpoint, a dog-trainer walks her dog.
After about two minutes, they are summoned to the car park. Apparently a bonus had been hidden there for the dog. We witness the maneuver. Apparently such practices are common these days, after the boy was killed two weeks ago. This went on for about ten minutes. All the while, dozens of people waited outside the sheds, the sun beating down mercilessly. We estimated 60 people waiting to get out of Nablus.
Simple calculation yielded 10 minutes X 60 people = 600 minutes that had been wasted here. Ten hours. There were certainly hundreds more in the car park, as well as a throng waiting to enter Nablus.
Finally, the dog and its trainer hop into their car and drive away. The soldiers resume their positions, people stream towards the turnstiles. The shouts are resumed as well: "One by one, you hear?! One by one!!! Don't raise your voice at me, do you hear?!!"
After ten minutes all the cars waiting to enter had been let through.
16:00 – two women and a ten-year old girl are ordered back into line. Apparently, for having pushed and trying to pass without presenting IDs.
Z.: Everyone gets through in my shift. No one is turned back. We only talked to them and explained they shouldn't behave like that again…
16:45 – At the Shaar Shomron cars are lined up, the police is conducting checks.
Beit Furik checkpoint
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One of the three internal checkpoints that closed on the city of Nablus - Beit Furik to the east, Hawara to the south, Beit Iba to the west. The checkpoint is located at the junction of Roads 557 (an apartheid road that was forbidden for Palestinians), leading to the Itamar and Alon Morea settlements and Road 5487. The checkpoint was established in 2001 for pedestrians and vehicles; The opening hours were short and the transition was slow and very problematic.Allegedly, the checkpoint is intended to monitor the movement to and from Nablus of the residents of Beit Furik and Beit Dajan, being the only opening outside their villages. Since May 2009 the checkpoint is open 24 hours a day, the military presence is limited, vehicles can pass through it without inspections, except for random inspections. (Updated April 2010)
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Burin (Yitzhar)
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Burin (Yitzhar)
This is a Palestinian village in the Nablus governorate, a little south of Nablus, on the main road passing through the West Bank. The settlements: Yitzhar and Har Bracha, settled in locations that surrounded the village, placed fences so it is cut off the main road.
There are around 4000 inhabitants. Most of them are engaged in agriculture and pasture, although many graduates of the two secondary schools continue to study at the university. Academic positions are hardly available, they find work as builderd, or leave for the Gulf countries.
The village lands were appropriated several times for the establishment of Israeli settlements and military bases, and as a result, Burin's land and water resources dwindled. lSince 1982, more than 2,000 dunams of village land have been declared "state land" and then transferred to Har Bracha settlement.
Over the past few years and more so since 2017, the villagers have been terrorized by the residents of Yitzhar and Har Bracha, the Givat Ronen outpost and others. Despite the close proximity of soldiers to an IDF base close to one of the village's schools, residents are suffering from numerous stone-throwing events, vehicle and fire arson, also reported in the press.
In 2023, the prevention of the olive harvest in the village plot was more violent than ever. Soldiers and settlers walked with drawn weapons between the houses of the village and demanded that people stop harvesting in the village itself and in the private plots outside the village. The settlers from Yitzhar and Giv'at Roned raided the olive groves and stole crops. 300 olive trees belonging to the residents of Burin, near Yitzhar, were uprooted. The loss of livelihood from the olives causes long-term economic damage to the farmers' families, bringing them to the point of starvation.
(updated for November 2023)
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Huwwara
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The Huwwara checkpoint is an internal checkpoint south of the city of Nablus, at the intersection of Roads 60 and 5077 (between the settlements of Bracha and Itamar). This checkpoint was one of the four permanent checkpoints that closed on Nablus (Beit Furik and Awarta checkpoints to the east and the Beit Iba checkpoint to the west). It was a pedestrian-only barrier. As MachsomWatch volunteers, we watched therre since 2001 two shifts a day - morning and noon, the thousands of Palestinians leaving Nablus and waiting for hours in queues to reach anywhere else in the West Bank, from the other side of the checkpoint the destination could only be reached by public transport. In early June 2009, as part of the easing of Palestinian traffic in the West Bank, the checkpoint was opened to vehicular traffic. The passage was free, with occasional military presence in the guard tower. Also, there were vehicle inspections from time to time. Since the massacre on 7.10.2023, the checkpoint has been closed to Palestinians.
On February 26, 2023, about 400 settlers attacked the town's residents for 5 hours and set fire to property, such as houses and cars. Disturbances occurred in response to a shooting of two Jewish residents of Har Bracha by a Palestinian Terrorist. The soldiers stationed in the town did not prevent the arson and rescued Palestinian families from their homes only after they were set on fire. No one was punished and Finance Minister Smotrich stated that "the State of Israel should wipe out Hawara." Left and center organizations organized solidarity demonstrations and support actions for the residents of Hawara.Hawara continued to be in the headlines in all the months that followed: more pogroms by the settlers, attacks by Palestinians and a massive presence of the army in the town. It amounted to a de facto curfew of commerce and life in the center of the city. On October 5, 2023, MK Zvi established a Sukkah in the center of Hawara and hundreds of settlers backed the army blocked the main road and held prayers in the heart of the town all night and the next day. On Saturday, October 7, 23 The "Swords of Iron" war began with an attack by Hamas on settlements surrounding Gaza in the face of a poor presence of the IDF. Much criticism has been made of the withdrawal of military forces from the area surrounding Gaza and their placement in the West Bank, and in the Hawara and Samaria region in particular, as a shield for the settlers who were taking over and rioting.
On November 12, 2023, the first section of the Hawara bypass road intended for Israeli traffic only was opened. In this way, the settlers can bypass the road that goes through the center of Hawara, which is the main artery for traffic from the Nablus area to Ramallah and the south of the West Bank. For the construction of the road, the Civil Administration expropriated 406 dunams of private land belonging to Palestinians from the nearby villages. The settlers are not satisfied with this at the moment, and demand to also travel through Hawara itself in order to demonstrate presence and control.(updated November 2023)
.Fathiya AkfaJun-02-2008Huwara: traffic jam on the main road
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Za'tara (Tapuah)
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Za'tara (Tapuah) Za'tara is an internal checkpoint in the heart of the West Bank, at the intersection of Road 60 and Road 505 (Trans-Samaria), east of the Tapuah settlement. This checkpoint is the "border" marked by the IDF between the north and south of the West Bank, in accordance with the policy of separation between the two parts of the West Bank that has been in place since December 2005. At the Za'tara checkpoint, there are separate routes for Israelis and Palestinians. In the route for Israelis, there are no inspections and the route for Palestinians inspects. The queue lengthens and shortens suits. The checkpoint is open 24 hours a day. The checkpoint is partially staffed and the people who pass through it are checked at random.Shoshi AnbarSep-27-2023Za'atra (Tapuah Intersection). Signs
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