Beit Furik, Huwwara, Sun 23.3.08, Afternoon
Translation: Tal H.
15:15 – Tapuach/Za'tara Junction CP- empty of vehicles
15:30 – Huwwara Checkpoint
3 active checking posts, x-ray truck, DCO representative T.
Checkpoint commander (No-name second lieutenant) takes the trouble to go over to Judith as soon as she sets foot at her usual monitoring position across the road from the vehicle checking post, with the inevitable demand to go away. She answers him assertively that this is her place, always been, and he lets her be.
Pedestrian lines quite full, and get much more crowded during our shift, expectedly. The special side line for women children and elderly is active and constant.
15:40 – a youngster is sent to the cubicle for 'educative' detention, not having been servile enough in line. No one to talk to about this – cp commander inapproachable.
He does not fail to reach the shaded area where we stand, near the exit turnstiles, and chase from there – with a mighty/scornful silent stare all the young men busy re-belting their trousers after their thorough inspection. (In cases of young men who look particularly able, the inspection also includes taking off their shoes and walking in their socks through the metal detector).
In the fierce sun, along the concrete ledge outside the exit area, a new post for the women (nine of them) waiting for their male travel companions not yet done with the checks.
An older woman is seated on the asphalt, her legs in the ledge's meager shade.
Eyes desperate. The parched silence of an early heat-wave. Not a single superfluous batting of an eyelash.
The line become full to bursting, endless in the suffocating heat.
A youngster passes us by, and chuckles: "Hey, how are you? Do you speak Yiddish?"…
An amazing sight-and-sound feat: all three Military Policewomen (in charge of checking IDs) manage to screech and suck on lollipops, at the same time.
16:30 – we leave for Beit Furik
Beit Furik Checkpoint – 16:40
As usual at this time of day, a fair trickle of pedestrians, and a long line of about 35 cars awaiting inspection outbound from Nablus, on a single checking lane. Cars inbound have to wait long, too, until they're signaled in.
A truck with 3 scrapped cars stands at the side of the CP entrance. The driver and his assistant tell us they've been held there, their IDs taken from them, since 11 a.m.!!
Soldiers on the morning shift took the driver's ID (the assistant's was returned to him), no explanation, nothing. He's been waiting since. Five and a half hours by the time we get there. We call the army hotline, then the DCO who promise to look into it. They also inform us that a Beit Furik resident's truck needs an entry permit to Nablus. ???
That too is an innovation.
After mobilizing Naomi to talk to the DCO we learn of the following surreal development:
For the past several days there are new instructions in the region – trucks delivering scrapped cars into Nablus require specialized inspection. Today the specialist is in the Jordan Valley. Therefore, the driver at hand has been ordered to while away what by now has become six hours (and running) at the checkpoint. Without anyone explaining anything to him.
Some more calls produce the arrival of a white DCO jeep that stands just inside the CP compound, and after the CP commander approaches, and they chuckle for a bit, the commander refuses to talk to us, and the jeep disappears.
At some late point the driver is signaled to finally.. approach the checking post, and is left to wait there, still with no information whatsoever. Nothing happens for about ten minutes, then he is signaled once more to reverse and wait at his former waiting place outside the entry.
At 18:15 – after we hear the specialist story on the phone, we exchange telephone numbers with the driver, and leave.
On our way home, after 18:30, we learn that he has just been released.
No specialist inspection. Into Nablus.
This man waited with no explanations offered from 11 a.m. until 6:30 p.m. at the Beit Furik Checkpoint due to a new draconian, un-enforceable regulation. Naturally seven and a half hours' waiting at a checkpoint do not entail any explanation for the victim.
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)
-
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 AkfaMar-23-2008Huwara: traffic jam on the main road
-
