Beit Furik, Burin (Yitzhar), Huwwara, Za’tara (Tapuah), Thu 24.4.08, Morning
Translation: Hanna K.
6:25 at Shaar Shomron there is a police CP in the direction from west to east
6:40 Marda is open, Zeita is closed by concrete blocks
6:45 Za'tara/Tapuah Junction.
10 vehicles are waiting from Ariel to Ramallah. 10 vehicles are waiting from Huwwara to Ramallah.
A reserve regiment is serving here. There is no pressure at the CP. Everything is working properly.
6:50 Opposite Beita there is no guard.
Burin/Yitzhar Junc. is open.
7:05 Huwwara –
A well functioning CP. The traffic seems sparse to us, but the locals in the parking lot tell us that it is the usual one, but that the CP is functioning efficiently and therefore it is not felt that the stream of people is a considerable one. Only one person unfastened his belt and I think he acted out of habit and not because he was asked to do so.
7:35 Awarta.
A queue of 14 vehicles from the direction of Nablus to Awarta.
Another 4 vehicles stand on the side. The CP functions slowly. Two tracks wait from the direction of Awarta to Nablus.
8:05 Beit Furik.
At the café of Beit Furik we heard that on the same spot where they found the body of the 15 years old Hamed Nadel Hatatba, another body of a 17 years old boy was found. They did not give me his name and I did not succeed in obtaining a confirmation for this piece of news. In the end I contacted Elisabeth from the eappi organization and she promised to return to me in case she succeeds clarifying the matter. She said that the Muchtar (the head of the village) promised to give her details about the first murder, but she did not hear about another body.
The CP functions very efficiently. There is no queue of waiting vehicles. The taxis which transport passengers in the direction of Nablus let the passengers get off exactly at the entrance to the turnstiles, where they pass as pedestrians while the taxi undergoes a quick check, without the driver leaving the car. The taxi continues to the other side of the CP where is collects its passengers.
8:40 On the main road of Huwwara, at a distance of about 1.5 kms from the CP there stands a command-car of the border police which stops all the taxis in the direction Za'tara-Huwwara CP.
The border-policemen collect the IDs of all the passengers and check their numbers by phone. We wanted to understand why. The answer we got was: "just so, because we can do it. We are allowed by law to stop a suspect vehicle and detain it, even without any reason, for 20 minutes". And indeed, all the efficient functioning of the CPs suddenly disappeared as if it had never existed. The police and the army invented a new form of a CP which is operated by the border police. Please take note of this!
9:00 While we watch with despair and helplessness the border policemen, we are asked to return to the Huwwara CP to check the piece of news that 5 soldiers attacked a man and beat him, handcuffed him and detained him. We began collecting evidence and in the end, according to the best of understanding, we gathered that the man was an employee of the administration, A. A. S., a problematic worker, a handicapped person, who from time to time creates a confrontation with the soldiers but that because of his handicap he is forgiven. This time he quarreled with them because he did not get free access to the soldiers' water tank and in the end, according to the soldiers, he tried to harm a soldier and according to the Palestinians who watch the incident he was attacked by 5 people. Rahel asked Zacharia what he knew about the incident and he repeated the army's version. T. from the DCO too repeats the army version. A., the Huwwara DCO who saw it all, confirmed the soldiers' version.
10:10 On the main road of Huwwara the border police continues pestering the taxi passengers.
Za'tara/Tapuah junction – there are 8 vehicles from Nablus to Ramallah and 2 from Ariel to Ramallah.
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)
.
Fathiya AkfaApr-24-2008Huwara: traffic jam on the main road
-
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
-
