Beit Furik, Huwwara, Tue 8.7.08, Afternoon
14:10 Huwwara Checkpoint
Almost full insistence on exposure of abdomen-thigh. Waiting time half an hour. Impression from looking inside, that the transients are few, is misleading. From the side the crowding can be seen. Passage is slow. Women wait, standing. As will be remembered, there is no point to a bench since, within weeks, the construction will end, and the soldiers also aren't sitting.
Very hot. 
A cripple on crutches progresses along the long walk, while stopping occasionally to lean – from fatigue.
The "Women in Green" flags add an air of encouragement of the holy work of the army at the checkpoint.
14:50 – a machine for checking large baggage arrives, but does not make a significant difference to the pace.
15:50 – an elderly man is made to stand next to the isolation pen ("bingo" – wanted according to his name). In the DCO he was promised that his name would be removed from the list of people to be detained. The promise still stands, day by day.
16:05 Beit Furik Checkpoint
Checkpoint empty but noisy: the radio is playing, and a woman soldier barks "imshi" at each individual transient.
We were seen from a distance and asked to evacuate the checkpoint. When we asked to remain under the shady roof (it was very hot), the woman shouted: "It's not my fault that there's sun!" We succeeded in remaining at the end. The local commander (more courteous than the woman soldier) admitted that at Huwwara we can stand closer, but the custom here is different. Palestinians who sought to stand in the shade were ordered 50 more metres back.
A year ago, three of us were accused at Ariel Pol
ice Station of "blocking the field of vision" of the soldiers at the deserted Beit Furiqk Checkpoint.
The orders to vehicle owners are flexible: sometimes the soldier allows a driver to continue, while another who doesn't argue enough, is ordered to offload and reload his scrap. In another vehicle, which waited quite a while in the heat, the driver was not required to get out or reboard. In another vehicle, the sheep that were waiting quite a long time in the heat were not forced to go out.
We left
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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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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Fathiya AkfaJul-08-2008Huwara: traffic jam on the main road
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