Beit Furik, Burin (Yitzhar), Huwwara, Za’tara (Tapuah), Mon 25.2.08, Morning
Translation: Hanna K.
06:25 A phone call from Beit Furik report on a queue of about 50 cars at the entrance to Nablus.
The driver reported that he has been waiting since 06:00. An attempt to reach E. or R. proved unsuccessful. We informed the DCO who promised to take care of the matter.
Only at 07:05 the driver passed the CP. He reported that they opened a second lane. Later it transpired, from the CP commander at Beit Furik that the unit of the CP soldiers, who were sleeping at Itamar, arrived late for their shift and therefore couldn't open a second lane. When we arrived at Beit Furik some time later (see the report below) there was no queue anymore.
07:40 we look from road no. 5 towards the parallel road on the right which leads from Haras, via Barkan to the village of Diq. Cars pass in both directions.
07:50 Marda: the village is surrounded by fences and barbed wire. Only the main entrance is open.
07:52 Zeita – the concrete blocks obstruct the exit from the village to road no. 5. People go down at the end of the path and catch a taxi in the direction of Haras or Za'tara.
A military hammer is situated there, but the soldiers do not stop anybody.
08:00 Za'tara.
A few cars coming from Nablus and also from the west, from road no. 5. They are passed quickly and without delays. A bus coming from the direction of Nablus is checked for 10 minutes. The passengers of the bus tell us that there is a segregation and that the inhabitants of Nablus, Jenin and Tul Karem are not allowed to leave Nablus. A passenger aged 20 from Tubas holding a medical certificate, on his way to an eye operation at Ramallah was passed on at Nablus and at the CP too without delays. A girl dog trainer checks 2 cars and this time to our surprise the car owners are allowed to watch this "military secret". They too are released after the checking. When we approached one of the soldiers to find out about the segregation we saw that he was wearing a little flag on which was incscribed "in all honour to the IDF" and he informed us that we were forbidden to talk to them. We made do with the information we got from the Palestinians.
08:25 BurinYitzhar: the CP is not manned.
08:35 Beit Furik.
Few pedestrians pass the CP quickly. At the car queue at the entrance to Nablus there are only 2 cars. There are 2 lanes open at this early hour and the cars from Nablus are allowed to enter, at the same time as the cars leaving Beit Furik are allowed to pass. Each car is checked for about a minutes.
A little piquantness from the CP adventures: an inhabitant of Beit Furik tries to transport a steering wheel axle for repair in Nablus. At the CP it is made clear to him that he cannot transport it for security reasons. We called from a distance to the CP commander S., who says he cannot let the axle pass because this is the order of the military policeman, who decides what is allowed to pass and what isn't. The CP commander is responsible only for the security. If he should get an order from the Operation Room to let it pass – he will do it. He himself cannot make the call (why? – just so! There is an operational chain of command…) I contacted the Nablus DCO Operation Room and they promised to investigate. We also tried to contact A. He doesn't try too hard to help. He only tells the Palestinian to load the axle on a truck (on a truck, it seems, the security reasons dissolve). The Palestinian doesn't want to complicate matters for the truck drivers. He returns the part to Beit Furik and decides to wait for the next shift of soldiers. In the meantime they return to us from the DCO and are astonished to hear that the military policeman is the one who decides. According to themhis task isonly to check IDs. Transportation of objects belongsto the task of the CP commander and the man should be allowed to transport the part. They promised to transfer the order by means of the battalion commander.
At 09:10 the order arrives that the object should be passed. The man returns the dangerous steering wheel axle from Beit Furik and passes it through the CP. The CP commander is informed what his duties are and the military policeman is returned to his former size. This is true at this moment but what about the future?
09:30 Huwwara:
At 09:00 the checking of the people entering Nablus was stopped. They enter freely. The CP commander meets us with a smile and informs us that the segregation has been lifted. We happily inform Limor at the Association. But it turns out that our joy was premature. A telephonic check shows that only those entering Nablus at Huwwara enjoyed the lifting of the segregation. At other places such as Beit Ibba and Tul Karem the segregation was still in full swing.The CP commander tells us that he had an event concerning our shift on the day before, but didn't elaborate. He told us that they would probably complain about him in the report. Did he change his behavior today? With us, at least, he was very nice and showed interest in the prices of the Beigels and falafel we bought from the Palestinians, and for a moment was even ready to hear our views about the CPs. In a friendly manner he expressed his conclusions: "this is our land, because we lived here two thousand years ago…and came back!".
The people leaving Nablus pass quickly and undergo the well known humiliating procedure – the checking of the goods, the unfastening of the belts… there is a queue for women and men over 45.
At 10:00 the pedestrian queue is empty and the military policewoman calls at us happily: "Nu, you should say well done – they all passed!" Indeed, never before did the turnstiles for people coming from Nablus seem so empty and superfluous – but still the CPs will probably be here for a long time…until we understand that the Palestinians too have an inherent right to their homeland not less than we do.
11:00 We left taking the road through Jit – there too there was an unmanned post.
Beit Furik checkpoint
See all reports for this place-
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)
-
Burin (Yitzhar)
See all reports for this place-
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)
-
Huwwara
See all reports for this place-
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)
.
Shoshi AnbarMay-18-2025Huwara: The old houses in Area C
-
Za'tara (Tapuah)
See all reports for this place-
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
-
