Beit Furik, Burin (Yitzhar), Huwwara, Za’tara (Tapuah), Wed 25.2.09, Afternoon
Translator: Charles K.
On our way. Nadim's car passes villages along the road, and the landscape, and Racheli says that the ride is more bearable because everything's so green after the rain. Like the song says: "The despair is easier to bear."
14:50 10 cars at the Za'tara/Tapuach junction.
15:00 Burin/Yitzhar – a temporary roadblock. 6 cars parked on the side of the road.
15:10 Beit Furik:
Cars drive to and from Nablus without interference. We photographed dogs eating a donkey's carcass; not very pleasant, but natural. The pillbox, on the other hand, isn't very natural. A soldier pops us to inform us that we're not allowed to photograph in a military area. Instead of replying we started to ask him how he feels at the checkpoint. He changed his mind about photographing, but said that "he keeps what he thinks to himself." Sharon, who's a foxier checkpoint veteran than I, thinks that he hasn't any opinion, which is why he hasn't anything to say. I preferred to take him at his word.
When we arrived at Huwwara we met a Swiss volunteer who is located in Yanun. He told us that at 11:00 AM he saw policemen beating a Palestinian and making him lie on the road. He saw him lying on the road surrounded by policemen, but didn't know why.
The checkpoint was extremely crowded. It turned out that all the schoolchildren traveled to Nablus to participate in a demonstration in support of Abu Mazen, and they were now on their way back to their villages. One of the young men in charge of the children asked us to help them go through. They weren't allowed to go through the humanitarian lane. The checkpoint commander and the DCO representative wanted the ID of a parent. We called the humanitarian office, and they made a similar suggestion which, of course, was no solution. Nothing helped, and the children had to go through the regular lane, where they were identified by their birth certificates. It should be noted that the regular lane was full of people returning from work. There were about 70 children at the checkpoint. We asked that they be moved up, and go through first, or that they be allowed to go through the humanitarian lane. Everyone connected with the checkpoint responded impatiently, in particular a master sergeant who was ruder than anyone else. We stood in the lane into Nablus surrounded by children and young people who had already succeeded in going through and waited for their companions. He chased away the ones who were waiting (who were standing beyond the checkpoint and weren't bothering him or interfering with those going through). "Where are they all from, come on, get out of here, go," he yelled in broken Arabic. We told him to calm down and speak politely. His reply: "Get them out of here; I don't want to see them." There still wasn't any solution regarding the children. We convinced them to move over to the regular lane in order not to waste time. But they apparently decided to protest and kept returning to the humanitarian lane, from which they kept being turned back to Nablus. And their companions kept screaming and yelling and causing even more of an uproar. The children finally went through the regular lane, except for one who had forgotten his birth certificate at home. A thin boy of 13-14, who had to wait for his brother to ride the bus to Awarta and return on foot (an hour on the road) with his birth certificate. And that's after they've already waited more than two hours. I understood that in the Huwwara checkpoint kingdom there are no Palestinian children.
The Huwwara checkpoint recognizes infants or children accompanied by father and mother. Children aged 12-13-14 are dangerous by definition, particularly when they don't always carry their parents' ID card. According to the laundered language familiar to all of us, it's always a "Palestinian youth," even if he's 10 years old, and even if they shoot him, and maybe especially if they shoot him, or maybe they just yell at him at the checkpoint.
Because of the uproar, the soldiers lose track of people entering Nablus, and at least twice they suddenly started chasing people who they put in the pen.
The automobile line from Nablus:
15:20 – 60 cars
16:30 – 24
16:55 – 38
Initially, the inspection was very slow, but then they speeded it up a little and things got better.
Dusk fell and the boy was still waiting for his brother and birth certificate. The Swiss volunteer also was in contact with his office, but to no avail. Before we left one of the laborers passing through the checkpoint came over to us. He arrives from Nablus at 4:00 AM; the checkpoint is supposed to open at 5:00. He and his fellows arrive early in order to go through quickly and catch their rides. He has a permit to work in Israel. The checkpoint doesn't open on time, so every morning they wait for two hours or more to get through and catch their ride. We gave him the number of the humanitarian office and told him to call whenever the checkpoint doesn't open on time.
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)
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Shoshi AnbarMay-18-2025Huwara: The old houses in Area C
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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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